Salad Days

Just recently I made a pledge to myself to eat more veggies. You'd think that as a vegan I'd eat heaps of veggies, but sometimes I don't. I may have cereal or toast for breakfast, beans on toast for lunch, and then maybe only a portion or two of veg for dinner. Sure, I snack on fruit in between, but I resolved to do better on the veg front.

The answer was simple, eat salad for lunch and so for the last 8 weeks or so that's what I've done every day. And I really look forward to my daily salad, which contains a rainbow of raw veg.


I weighed my lunch a couple of times, and it averages around 450-500 grammes - roughly the equivalent of 5-6 servings. This also means I make good in roads into my 7 a day quota.

And best of all what I've realized is, is just how tasty a varied salad bowl can be. My salad rules are to include some kind of leaf, veg of a couple of colours (the more the better), something crunchy and a nice dressing. Last week I had some bean sprouts left over from dinner, so I made an chinese nspired salad, with lots of bean spouts, crunchy carrots sticks, avocado and a tahini and soya sauce dressing. 

I also pretty much always add toasted seeds (usually a mix of sunflower, pumpkin and cumin) and I've just started making a dressing using a flax and hemp seed oil blend for added omegas. I like to have something special in the salad too, so griddled aubergine, or asparagus, avocado or toasted nuts often feature. I have also added in grains and beans if they're to hand. I'll go to my local greengrocer and have a browse to see what's in season and then chuck it in.

Three of last week's lunches, you can tell I had aubergine in!

And I plan on keeping up the healthy habit all year round. I'm looking forward to some hearty winter salads full of crunch to keep me bright and healthy later in the year.

In case you want to try it here's my tahini and soya sauce dressing recipe.

2 tsp of dark soya sauce
1 tsp of dark tahini
1 tsp of flax and hemp seed blend oil (sesame oil, or even olive oil would work well too)
2 tsp of fresh lemon juice

Put all the ingredients in a jar, put the lid on and shake. Pour over the salad (works well if the salad is nice and crunchy).

If you eat lots of salad, why not tweet it with the hashtag #saladaday and share the veggie love!