Salads Are Not Boring!

In the past I had to practically force myself to eat a salad, until I discovered lovely ingredients to put in it. I'm not a huge fan of lettuce and neither is the boyfriend, but we both love rocket. Cherry tomatoes, baby corn cobs, pickled beetroot, grated apple & carrot, and cucumber are always staples in my salads, as well as mixed seeds, beans or nuts to add a bit of protein. Sometimes I add a bit of marinaded tofu, fried polenta or seitan to the mix. I've never seen the point in eating anything drenched in dressing either, so it's great when I discover some nice vegan chutney to go on the side or ingredients which have been preserved in vinegar that add great flavour without the fat of a high-calorie dressing (and great colour too, if you use beetroot!). Here are some good ideas for ingredients to add to salads, which are healthy and flavoursome, to make your meal a little more interesting than the conventional garden salad:

Grilled pickled sweet pimento peppers and picked shredded cabbage, from Lidl:



Mixed bean salad from Aldi and a three bean salad from Tesco:



Mixed sunflower and pumpkin seeds from Aldi:



Aldi chutneys are lovely, especially the tomato, mint and lime one (the one on the left is not vegan as it has honey in it, but belongs to my boyfriend!):



The main thing is to be creative with salads. The first thing that comes to most people's minds are that salads are "boring" and "tasteless" and only for people who are "on diets". This may very well be true for most salads out there, but that doesn't mean you have to make your own salads boring! Salads are, I'd have to say, one of my favourite foods now. There's nothing nicer than a a salad dish where the ingredients combine to give a wonderful, fresh experience leaving you wanting more!