This salad skips the leaves and is made up of add-ins, but not the “guilty†kind. It combines zucchini, carrot and cabbage with sun-dried tomatoes, feta cheese and olives to create a simple and healthy salad that doesn’t need the leaves to keep you slim and full. Enjoy!
This is one juicy snack! It can also work as a lunch or appetizer. The tomato acts as a moisture-rich “bun†and the wilted green leaves, sautéed with garlic and olive oil, acts as the filling. It’s exceptionally light and has bold flavors from the garlic, feta, and balsamic vinegar. The tomato balances it all. Enjoy!
The best way to bulk up any salad is to add protein-rich beans. It turns a salad into a meal and adds welcome texture to a bowl of greens. In this recipe, I combine Mediterranean flavors with white beans to make a satisfying, yet light lunch or a fun side dish.
Beans, beans they’re good for you heart, the more you eat them the more you…glow.
White Beans: are one of the most concentrated food sources of detoxifying enzyme molybdenum, are low on the glycemic index, keep cravings at bay, lower the risk of heart disease and adult-onset diabetes, slow the absorption of carbohydrates (and thus body fat), prevent premature aging with their high-antioxidant content, and are very high in magnesium and thus helpful for handling stress and preventing celiac disease and gastrointestinal problems.
Greek White Bean Salad
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Ingredients (2 servings)
Instructions
Remove the stems from the cherry tomatoes and cut them in halves.
Drain and rinse the white beans.
In a bowl, toss together the halved baby tomatoes, the beans, the chopped parsley, black olives, and crumbled cheese.
In a separate, small bowl, whisk together the extra-virgin olive oil and juice of half a lemon. Pour over the white bean mixture and season with salt and pepper.
Fold the dressing into the beans and vegetables until it is evenly distributed. Serve.
Enjoy!
Bon Appetit!
xo Aylin
My two go-to salads are 1-2-3-ready and neutral enough to have on a daily basis, but don’t let their simplicity fool you–they pack a flavor punch!
The first salad I made yesterday, and it lets the green leaves do the talking. It’s abundant and a wonderful complement to a denser meal.
Lemon and Scallion Green Leaf Salad
Ingredients:
1 head of green leaf lettuce
2 scallions
1/2 lemon
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/2 diced tomato
Salt & pepper
Directions:
Begin by peeling off the outside layer two scallions and dicing them evenly (note: those are my father’s hands).
Wash the head of green leaf lettuce and chop it relatively thinly width-wise.
Next add the lemon…
and the olive oil…
And lastly, toss in the tomato for some color contrast.
A feast for the eyes, and a wonderful way to begin the meal 🙂
Next salad.
This salad is a Turkish salad, which is a lot like a Greek salad only the vegetables are cut smaller. It is also doesn’t have any greens, except for the parsley. My family eats this salad every night.
Turkish Salad (Coban Salatasi)
Ingredients:
1/2 red onion (I used white in this recipe because it’s all I had on hand)
1 tomato, diced
1/2 cucumber, diced
1/2 hot green pepper, diced
1 bunch finely chopped parsley
Salt & pepper
1/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Red pepper flakes
Directions:
Dice the onions, tomatoes, and cucumber.
Take 1/2 green pepper and slice it length-wise in half, removing the seeds. Then dice it and add to the salad mix.
Add salt & pepper. Make sure to add the salt to the onions, scrunching them with your hands as to release its juices. The salt helps this happen and makes the onions softer and easier to eat.
Then comes the parsley–finally chopped!
Toss dem all up!
Add the fixin’s…
(olive oil, red wine vinegar, and red pepper flakes)
The cheese comes next (totally optional). I am using a sheep feta of Bulgarian variety. It’s a yum-fest.
I also added a few black olives I had on hand for even more flava!
And that’s all! Two great salads for everyday munchin’. Both are raw (save for the cheese), a palette cleanser, and flood your body with nutrients and enzymes. Enjoy!
xoxo
