Homemade Simple Salad and Dressing Recipes
To make your own salad is pretty empowering. You no longer have to rely on restaurant offerings of a slice of tomato and cucumber with limp lettuce. But also are free from the (very expensive) bagged salads in supermarkets, and dressings often made with dairy ingredients.
Oh She Glows Salads is a wonderful guide to create your own protein-backed salad recipes, for each season. No more tasteless plastic bags of salad from the supermarket, with this book you can make your own with healthy ingredients, to store in the fridge.
Read up on food safety for people and pets. Bin allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallots, chives) and tomato/citrus/rhubarb scraps (acids may harm compost creatures).
Fully remove tinned lids (or pop ring-pulls back over holes) before recycling, to avoid wildlife getting trapped.
From refreshing spring and summer bowls to cosy hearty salads for autumn and winter, you’ll soon discover favourites to enjoy again and again.
Recipes include:
- Glow Up Pesto Dream Bowl
- Roasted Chickpea and Parm Romaine Crunch Salad
- The Ultimate Ranch Barbecue Tofu Cobb Salad
- Roasted Mediterranean Lentil Salad
- Autumn Crunch Farro Kale Salad
Plus the book has plant-based protein toppers, creamy dressings, vibrant vinaigrettes and savoury cheeses to create restaurant-worthy salads at home.
Angela is one of the world’s best-selling vegan cookbook authors, and author of many recipe books. She lives with her family in Canada.
Homemade Vegetable Salad (with garlic)
This homemade vegetable salad with garlic (The Simple Veganista) combines cucumber, peppers, tomatoes, onion and garlic, in a homemade lemon Dijon mustard oil dressing.
To make your own salad is pretty empowering. You no longer have to rely on restaurant offerings of a slice of tomato and cucumber with limp lettuce. But also are free from the (very expensive) bagged salads in supermarkets, and dressings often made with dairy ingredients.
Southwest Sweet Potato Salad Recipe
This sweet potato salad (Broke Bank Vegan) is way more substantial than a limp lettuce leaf, and a few slices of cucumber and tomato. Inspired by rich tastes of the USA’s Deep South, this pairs sweet potato with corn, tinned black beans, red onion, peppers, lime and chipotle power. Then sweetened with maple syrup. This is real salad, for men with big appetites!
This salad uses tinned black beans, but you can sub with any kind of beans. All tinned beans are high in protein and calcium, and cheap to buy. Black beans are common in Mexican food, often added to tacos and burritos. If you can’t find them, just sub with tinned kidney beans or any other beans you like (this recipe likely won’t work with baked beans though!)
Not only are sweet potatoes versatile, they’re brimming with vitamins while boasting a natural sweetness that can elevate any dish. Sweet potatoes have more nutrients than white potatoes, with a lower glycemic index (so less ‘sugar rush). And beans are cheap and tasty, and packed with protein and calcium.
Tomato & Artichoke Salad (with chickpeas)
This Tomato & Artichoke Salad with Chickpeas (Short Girl, Tall Order) is a refreshing summer lunch recipe, making use of fresh tomatoes and canned artichoke hearts, along with tinned chickpeas for protein and calcium.
Homemade Vegan Pasta Salad Recipe
This vegan pasta salad (Exploring Vegan) combines with vegan mayo and vegan honey, along with Dijon mustard, and a variety of veggies (carrots, onion, bell pepper and celery). Garnish with scallions.
A Vegan Update on Old-Fashioned Potato Salad
This southern-style potato salad (The Simple Veganista) combines cooked baby potatoes and chopped celery, in a vegan mayo and mustard dressing.
Celery has been eaten for thousands of years. In Egyptian times, it was used for rheumatism and athletes. Most shops sell it in plastic wrap, so look in farm shops instead. Or if it comes in plastic wrap, just leave the plastic packaging at supermarket bag bins, and take home in your own produce bags.
A Recipe for Tasty Pasta Salad (with courgettes)
This vegan pasta salad (Rainbow Plant Life) is a good way to use up courgettes (conventional pesto is not even vegetarian, it contains calf rennet). This pesto is made by caramelising chunked courgettes with garlic, salt and red pepper flakes. Top with sliced cherry tomatoes and chickpeas.
Avoid courgettes that are wrinkled or have yellow skin or black spots. Store in the fridge. Choose organic to avoid cross-pollinated seed batches that carry a toxin (Tim Dowling writes how he poisoned himself with homegrown courgettes).
It’s not just cheap and filling, but high in natural protein thanks to the chickpeas, so all the ingredients are easy to find.
Courgettes (called ‘zucchini’ in North America) are quite popular in England, especially for Mediterranean recipes like ratatouille. Related to squash, the smallest courgettes tend to be most tasty (if not harvested, they grow into marrows).
Look in stores for Yorkshire Pasta Company or The Northern Pasta Co (both are made with British wheat, and sold in plastic-free packaging).
Conventional Parmesan is not vegetarian (it contains a cheese that by law, contains calf rennet). Instead, just grate good vegan cheese over the top.
Homemade Fruity Salad Dressing Recipes
Virgin Olive oil is better for salad dressings health-wise than for cooking (rapeseed oil is better). Some people say we should not eat oil at all (and get all fat from real foods – i.e olives over olive oil). There are debates.
Try these fruity salad dressings (The Veg Space) including raspberry vinaigrette.
