Easy Winter salads in The New Healthy

NOURISH: MEAL INSPIRATION #25
Week beginning Friday 4th December 2020

Winter salads that won’t leave you hungry

The great thing about winter salads is that it’s a great way to include all those delicious winter vegetables and your salads will take on a totally new look..and taste! They also tend to be heartier, so can work well as main meal or a side to a main and won’t leave you feeling hungry through the colder months ahead.

And, they don’t always have to be warm salads! Here’s 4 combos that I’ve eaten simply because I had the ingredients and wanted to make sure they got eaten and didn’t go to waste. Well, it’s either a soup or a casserole otherwise!

  • Roasted Fennel Strips with Sundried Tomato & Feta CubesThis delicious, high fibre salad is perfect tossed in a little balsamic vinegar, olive oil and a sprinkle of dried Italian herbs. The salty feta is so good with the slightly tart tomatoes and the aniseed flavour of the fennel.Fennel plants are green and white, with feathery leaves and yellow flowers. You can eat the whole bulb and the feathery leaves and flowers are ideal to garnish your salad with.Fresh fennel bulb is a good source of vitamin C, an important antioxidant vitamin critical for immune health, tissue repair, and collagen synthesis.
  • Chickpea and Green Lentil Salad
    Using chickpeas and green lentils as a cold or warm base for this salad makes this a hearty salad, that also provides good plant based protein. Along with an array of colourful vegetables, this is a tasty nutritionally balanced salad that you can have in the fridge ready to grab at lunch time or to serve alongside your evening meal.Here I’ve very finely chopped celery, red, yellow and green peppers and tossed it in a Lemon Dijon Vinaigrette and some finely chopped fresh parsley.This one gets better in a day or two!
  • Roasted Butternut Squash, Savoy Cabbage and Green Beans
    The lovely thing about this salad is that the vegetables are steamed, so very easy to put together. Roast the butternut squash separately and then combine them in a large bowl with a dressing.This salad has an orange juice-based vinaigrette. Very simply, combine:Juice of 1 1/2 oranges [about 1/3 cup]
    zest of 1 orange (optional)
    1/2 tbsp honey
    2 tbsp white wine vinegar
    1 tbsp olive oil
    S & P
  • Apple, Celery and Pecan Waldorf
    This retro salad is such a fun salad with different textures and flavours that work so well together. No need to peel the apple and do make sure you slice the celery thinly, so it’s not too difficult to eat. Reserve a few leaves to garnish at the end. The gamechanger here is not only the dressing (below) but toasting the pecans; either in the oven for around 8mins (set a timer!) or dry toasting in a frying pan.1 apple (any), unpeeled, cubed
    2 sticks celery, very thinly sliced
    ½ red onion, cut in thin wedges
    2 tbsp Greek yoghurt
    1 tbsp creme fraiche
    1 tbsp lemon juice
    2 tbsp white wine vinegar
    1 tbsp olive oil
    S & P    Variations: You can swap pecans for walnuts and pears also work well. Adding raisins or grapes will add a little more sweetness.