My Magnificent Salad of the Moment

My mother’s idea of a salad was a floppy lettuce with one sliced tomato and one sliced hard-boiled egg. Salad dressing was mayonnaise and oil. So I like my salads to have plenty of ingredients and per definition no lettuce!

Lately I’ve been making the following salad a lot. It’s a big, beautiful jolt of healthfulness and tasty, too. I’ll make a huge bowl full and we all have it whenever during the day, until it’s gone and I make it again. And it’s not getting old yet. I chop up almost everything that needs chopping entirely and keep what I don’t use in fridge containers for the next time. For example, I’ll chop up a whole bunch of celery, even though I only need a handful for one salad. That way I only have to do a lot of chopping once every three salads or so.

I was talking with someone about life recently, and he pointed out that there’s no recipe for life, no certain amounts of the right ingredients for being successful–you just have to make it up as you go along. Well, that’s actually how I’ve always approached recipes. So no exact amounts of the ingredients here, and you can do lots of variations.

1 box or bag arugula (or arugula and spinach mix)
1 handful coleslaw
1 handful chopped celery
1 handful carrot sticks
1 handful chopped spring onions
1 handful chopped cilantro
1 chopped avocado
1 can black beans (or chickpeas, or navy beans, or kidney beans…)
1 handful slivered almonds (or pine nuts, or pecans, or sunflower seeds…)
1 chopped apple (or mango, or jicama, or mandarin orange sections…)
Some curry
Some herbes de Provence
Some flax seed powder (in case you don’t feel healthy enough yet)
A good extra virgin olive oil (or walnut oil…), about 4 or 5 times around the bowl
Lemon juice, also about 4 or 5 times around the bowl

Stir it all up and enjoy. Or do it with kale, and cherry tomatoes… In other words, just make a salad, with lots of ingredients!