Avocado-Tomato Salad

 

This salad is a frequent meal at our house.  We have it several times a week, because it's just so darned healthy for us.  And it's real easy to make.  Luckily, since we live in South Texas we can get avocados and tomatoes year-round.   We like  to have this for dinner with a fruit crumble for dessert.

AVOCADO-TOMATO SALAD
serves 2 as a main dish

1 avocado, cut in cubes
1 large tomato, diced
salt
3 cups baby spinach leaves
hemp oil* or olive oil
pumpkin seeds

Wash the spinach and divide between 2 large salad bowls.  Small mixing bowls are a nice size, also.

Salt the diced tomato and place half on top of the spinach in each bowl.

Salt the cubed avocado and place half on top of tomatoes in each bowl.

Drizzle with hemp or olive oil and sprinkle about 2 teaspoons pumpkin seeds on top of each serving.


* If you haven't tried hemp oil, you are missing something wonderful.  It has a nutty taste and lots of healthy omega-3 fatty acids. Don't overdo it though, because the flavor can overpower your salad.

Carrot-Poppyseed Salad

This recipe makes a regular appearance at our house, as a main-dish big salad. We eat it on a pile of baby spinach leaves. The recipe serves 2 as a main serving and 4 as a side dish.

CARROT-POPPYSEED SALAD (vegan)

1/4 cup poppyseed dressing*
2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins
2 oz. cubed cheese (Monterrey jack is good, so is cheddar)

fresh spinach or lettuce leaves
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In a large bowl, toss ingredients together.  Can be served on a bed of lettuce or spinach.

Serves 4

*Poppyseed Dressing

1 Tbsp. honey or vegan sweetener
1 pinch onion powder
1/8 tsp. ground mustard seed
1/8 tsp. salt
1/4 tsp. poppyseeds
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Combine ingredients in a jar. Put the lid on and shake well before using.

Note: Here's a recipe for a larger amount of this dressing: Golden Poppyseed Dressing, which is nice to have on hand for other salads, like Waldorf, Avocado & Orange, etc.

Avocado & Orange Salad

This salad makes a yummy meal, which we eat about once a week at our house.  Here in South Texas, avocados are available year-round and we have a mandarin orange tree in our yard.  Heaven!

You can easily use a regular orange or a grapefruit instead of a mandarin.  Just add extra dressing to sweeten it up, according to the fruit you're using.  A small batch of my golden poppyseed dressing can be made using the recipe below.  You can get the full recipe here.

AVOCADO & ORANGE SALAD

serves 2
1 medium  mandarin orange or tangerine
1 medium avocado
salt
poppyseed dressing*
fresh spinach leaves

Peel and separate the orange segments.  Cut into bite-sized pieces and remove the seeds.  Place in a bowl and stir in 3-4 tsp. poppyseed dressing, depending upon how sweet or sour the orange is.

Cut the avocado into bite-sized pieces and sprinkle with salt.

Assemble the salad in individual large bowls.  Start with a bed of lettuce, add half the orange mixture, then half the avocado pieces.  Drizzle more poppyseed dressing over the avocado.


*Golden Poppyseed Dressing
 1 Tbsp. honey or vegan sweetener
1/8 tsp. salt
1/8 tsp. ground mustard
pinch onion powder
1 Tbsp. cider vinegar
1/4 tsp. poppyseeds
2 Tbsp. olive oil

Place all ingredients in a jar and shake well.


This post is part of Orange Week on the blog.  Check out the other posts:
 In Love with Mandarin Oranges
Orangey Jar Cozy
Victoriana at Its Best

Poppyseed Waldorf Salad

This is a great main-dish salad, especially when it's served over lettuce.  The recipe below makes 4 side servings, or 2 main servings.  And it's pretty easy if you already have some Golden Poppyseed Dressing made up.  We keep a bottle of it on hand, and another one of vinaigrette.

POPPYSEED WALDORF SALAD (vegetarian)

1 pinch ground allspice

1/4 cup poppyseed dressing*

1 med. to lg. apple, cut up

1 lg. celery stalk, cut up

1/4 cup raisins

1/4 cup walnuts, broken in pieces

2 oz. cheddar cheese, cubed

lettuce leaves

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In a large bowl, stir together allspice and dressing.  Add remaining ingredients and toss until coated.  Can be served on a bed of lettuce.

Serves 4 

*Poppyseed Dressing:

1 Tbsp. honey

1 pinch onion powder

1/8 tsp. ground mustard seed

1/8 tsp. salt

1/4 tsp. poppyseeds

1 Tbsp. cider vinegar

2 Tbsp. olive oil

Combine ingredients in a jar.  Put the lid on and shake well before using.

Pea Salad

This is another one of our dense veggie salads.  I like the flavor of cheddar cheese in this salad, but last night we were out of cheddar, so you're seeing jack cheese cubes, instead.

PEA SALAD (vegetarian)

1 (16 oz.) pkg. frozen green peas, cooked & cooled

2 stalks celery, 1/4” sliced

1/3 cup sweet pickles, chopped

8 oz. cheddar or jack cheese, cubed

2 Tbsp. honey

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. ground allspice

2 Tbsp. cider vinegar

2 Tbsp. olive oil

lettuce leaves

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Place peas, celery, pickles, and cheese in a large bowl.

In a small jar, combine honey, salt, allspice, vinegar, and olive oil.  Cover and shake well.  Pour over pea mixture and gently stir to combine and coat the vegetables.

  

Can be served on a bed of lettuce.

Serves 4-6.

Corn Salad

This is one of our denser salads, which we like to throw in for dinner between lettuce-salad nights.  I serve it on a bed of lettuce, though, so we still get some leafy veggies.  And as you can see, there's no bell pepper in this photo.  It's impossible to find it organically grown around here, so I just leave it out.  The lettuce provides plenty of crunch for us.

CORN SALAD (vegan) 

1 (16 oz.) pkg. frozen corn kernels, cooked & cooled

2 tsp. brown or Dijon mustard

2 Tbsp. cider vinegar

1/4 tsp. salt

1/8 tsp. black pepper

1 sm. red or green bell pepper, diced

1 lg. tomato, cored and diced

1 avocado, diced (or substitute 1/4 cup sour cream)

lettuce leaves

Stir mustard, vinegar, salt, and pepper into corn.  Add tomato, bell pepper, and avocado, and toss gently to mix.

If you happen to be out of avocados and you're not vegan, you can top each serving with a dollop of sour cream instead.

Can be served on a bed of lettuce.

Serves 4.

Got Salad?

This is the stuff of life.  Every day we have at least one meal with a big salad as the main dish.  Thanks to Joel Fuhrman (Eat to Live), our diet has taken a quantum leap in the right direction.  Probably the most important part of it is to eat salad, and LOTS of it.  The key is to eat as much leafy-green and fresh-veggie food as you can.  Every day.

BASIC SALAD PLAN

serves 1

Romaine lettuce

fresh veggie pieces

cottage cheese or avocado

vinaigrette dressing

seeds

Fill a 1 to 2 qt. bowl about halfway up with bite-sized pieces of Romaine lettuce.  Top with halved cherry tomatoes, or whatever you like.  Add a dollop of cottage cheese or a cut-up avocado half, drizzle about 1 Tbsp. of balsamic vinaigrette on top.  Add 1 Tbsp. of pumpkin, sunflower, or freshly ground flax seeds.

Fruit Variation:

Spinach leaves

Orange segments cut in bite-sized pieces

Jack cheese cubes

Pecan or walnut halves

Marinated Variation:

Romaine lettuce

Carrot pieces marinated in vinaigrette

Sweet pickles, cut into 1/2" pieces

Gouda or cheddar cheese cubes

Pine nuts

If you have some whole-grain crackers, they're nice with this type of salad, but don't fill up on them.  We like to add a little fruit dessert to this meal, like warmed peaches or berries from the freezer, topped with a touch of cinnamon, brown sugar, or even sour cream.  In the summer, we make "ice cream" made with fruit, rice milk, and honey.

Use your imagination, but don't go crazy with the fats.  We eat this kind of salad pretty much every other day.  On the in-between days, we have denser salads like pea salad, corn salad, avocado salad--all on a bed of lettuce.