Breakdown of a Main-Dish Salad

I love salad. Like, love, love, love salad. I eat salad every day. I make salad at home, and I order salad when I go out to eat. I bring salad to other people's houses when I visit. But sometimes I have a hard time thinking of new recipes for salad.

Some days I like my salads to be nice and light, but other days, I want something hearty and substantial. I was feeling particularly hungry this day, so I grabbed everything out of the produce drawer and started chopping. Zucchini, red pepper, curly kale, collard greens, celery...they all made the cut. I transferred everything to a giant platter (below) and just set it in the fridge for later assembly.

I threw some quinoa on the stove, and in 15 minutes, I had my pseudo-grain ready. Honestly, sometimes I wish quinoa was a grain, because it would be so much easier to just say "here's my grain." But, nooooooo.

I grabbed a big bowl and spooned some quinoa on the bottom, layering the chopped veggies on top. For extra satiety and protein, I added some baked tempeh, cut into cubes. The dressing is Caesar Chavez Dressing from Appetite for Reduction:

A salad like this is great because you are hitting so many nutritional bases at once: green leafies, protein (quinoa and tempeh), fat (from the cashew-based dressing), and carbs (quinoa, veggies). Not to mention, there is a TON of fiber in this dish. I think green leafies deserve their own category because they are so important to our diet!

I think the best part is that this is a salad you can put together piece-meal; often, I will make the dressing and cook and cool the grain in the morning. During my son's nap or quiet time, I'll marinate the tempeh and chop the veggies. When dinner time rolls around, all I have to do is assemble the salads and eat! I love meals like that :)

I haven't gotten any reader comments in, like, forever, so someone out there, please leave me a comment and let me know about your favorite salads! Thank you!!