Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Salad Bar Night!

As most of you probably do, we eat plenty of salads with and for dinner.  With children, I like to keep it as fun as possible, for even though they're vegan, they're still kids and don't always want to eat a salad every day.  So, Ill make a variety of salads from different regions, or have big individual salads loaded with their favorite toppings, or like this version: I'll have a salad bar with familiar and unfamiliar things to top whatever greens are the base that night.

My dear mother, bless her heart, gave me three heads of iceberg lettuce.  Just like home, ah, the memories.  The only time we usually eat iceberg now is when we're over at my parents or when she drives over to bring me three heads of it.  So, there it is, the star of our show, and it's thumbing its nose at Romaine, red leaf, butter, endive, and radicchio.  Let it have its crunchy glory, I say, surrounded by all sorts of goodness!  Below, I'll list the toppings left to right, just to give you an idea of what you can have.  Add or take away at your taste bud's pleasure. 



The Salad Bar



What my plate looked like loaded up.

Salad Bar Night

Ingredients:

Nice big bowl of lettuce, chopped
A variety of ingredients with proper handling tools provided.  We had:
  Pear tomatoes
  Finely grated Follow Your Heart Vegan Gourmet cheese, Monterey Jack style
  Green onions, sliced
  Carrots, grated
  Celery, chopped
  Raw turnip, grated
  Radish, grated
  Green bell pepper, diced
  Parsley greens, chopped small
  Sliced almonds
  Marinated artichoke hearts

A variety of dressings, olive and sesame oils, red wine and balsamic vinegars and lemon juice

Directions:

Top lettuce to your heart's content with the goodies.  Add the dressings to season lightly.  Eat!  Feeds five hungry vegans.

10 comments:

  1. What a fun way to have a family dinner. I would have loved that when I was a kid; we always had salad, but mixed all together. And, as for iceberg lettuce, sure it's not as nutritious as the other kinds, but I like it once in a while; it's so sweet and crunchy!

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  2. This post was the inspiration for my salad lunch today! Yummy :)

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  3. Rose, you're right about iceberg. It does have a good crunch. I'm going to modify what I said slightly somehow. I just have to think a moment.

    Paulina, good! :-)

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  4. There - now I added the word "crunchy." I hope it feels better. :-)

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  5. I love this idea!
    My 3 year old prefers raw over cooked...she would go crazy for this.

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  6. Iceberg was the only Lettuce I ever knew existed till I was...well never mind..It took mass quantities of Cheese, Croutons and Thousand Island Dressing for me to choke it down. Good to know your kids won't have the same memories.

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  7. Kirsten, hopefully, her food preferences will stay just as healthy later on!

    S.V., oh, those memories aren't so bad for me. I doubt my mom knew about the other choices. Now, it's whatever's on sale for her. Don't worry, my kids will have plenty of onion and bell pepper memories to share with a psychologist one day.

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  8. Onions and Bell Peppers?! I wish I had those problems!

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  9. Iceberg has its charms, though it's not my first choice. A salad bar, though, is right up there at the top of my list of great meal plans. Yours looks excellent, with so many good choices. Love the artichoke hearts, almonds and raw turnip!

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  10. S.V., well, it appears you handle everything just fine!

    Andrea, iceberg is underappreciated, isn't it? Hmm, I'm feeling inspired to do an honorary post of it. The raw turnip was a last second thought. I bought it from the farmer's market, and as usual, thought, "what if I....?" And, that's how many of my meals are born.

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