I am all about a fresh and healthy salad. I could live off of a primarily plant based diet but someone in my house doesn’t eat “rabbit food” as he calls it. I break out this delicious recipe while he is traveling and it is a special treat! I came up with this concoction while I was in college and didn’t have easy access to a kitchen. The good news, it requires absolutely no actual cooking. The bad news, sometimes I regret any type of arm exercise that day because it takes A LOT of chopping. Perhaps my favorite part of this entire recipe is the homemade dressing. It is loaded with flavor but has no added salt, no gluten and no added sugar so it works with most restrictions anyone visiting may have. I am just a make my own dressing type of person anyways, once you get in the habit you will never go back to the bottled stuff again. Take a peak at the sugar and sodium content on most bottled dressings and that alone will convert you.
Without further adieu lets get to it! All of the ingredients are raw and they are also organic. Two heads of romaine, two roma tomatoes, ½ red onion, one cucumber, one bell pepper (I use red or orange because I like the colors in the salad but they all taste the same so if the green is cheaper save yourself some money) ¼ cup of feta cheese feel free to get heavy handed with it and ¼ cup pitted Kalamata olives.
Side Note: Have you ever tried to take photo’s and have your animals want to help? Sylvie is my most curious kitty and she insisted on “helping” with the photos.
My other two kitties are minding their own business on the couch but not Sylvie….
I always clean my produce really well before I use it. I use the honest company’s fruit and veggie wash.
Then I get to chopping. I start with cutting the lettuce width wise.
Then cut it the other way to make really small pieces.
Then I throw it in the bowl and commence chopping rest of the goodies into really small pieces. The red onion is particularly important to cut into tiny pieces because it is really strong if you get a large piece.
As I chop each item I just layer them on top of the lettuce in a bowl.
Now it is time for the dressing. It is ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil, 4 TB red wine vinegar, 1 TB and 1 tsp of Herbs de Provence and 1 tsp of oregano. Like I said above, this has tons of flavor but no added sugar or sodium.
Mix them all together.
When you are ready to serve the salad, pour the dressing over the top.
Mix the salad up and incorporate the dressing throughout. Enjoy as a side dish or an entrée! Either way you can feel good about what you are eating!
SALAD INGREDIENTS
2 Heads Romaine Lettuce
2 Roma Tomatoes
1/4 Cup Feta Cheese
1/2 Red Onion cups
1 Cucumber
1 Red Bell Pepper
1/4 Cup Pitted Kalamata Olives
DIRECTIONS
1. Wash all of your ingredients.
2. Chop the lettuce into small pieces and place in bowl.
3. Chop and combine the other ingredients and place in bowl with lettuce.
4. Dress the salad.
5. Incorporate the dressing into the salad.
6. Serve immediately and enjoy!
DRESSING INGREDIENTS
1/4 Cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
4 TB Red Wine Vinegar
1TB and 1tsp Herbs de Provence
1tsp Oregano
DIRECTIONS
1. Mix ingredients together.
Disclosure: This post is not sponsored or endorsed by The Honest Company. All opinions expressed are intellectual property of Madeleine Raiford-Holland.
