Most people think about salads as a summer food. Cool, crisp and light are elements naturally aligned to summer eating. So why do I think salads are perfect for fall? A hearty fall salad, based on the principles of the Mediterranean Diet, is the perfect quick meal. A perfect fall Salad is healthy but tastes indulgent – especially my Mixed Greens with Rustic Smashed Potatoes with Creamy Basil Avocado dressing. Yes, it is a perfect fall Salad.
Salads are Good for You
Salads are good for you and we should try to eat them all year. According to a study conducted by the UCLA School of Public Health lettuce and leafy greens build a healthy immune system. When topped with olive oil, a healthy fat, essential nutrients are absorbed. These aspects are important to me, but the reason I am excited is my perfect fall salads are easy to prepare, filling and delicious!
Diet Food Does Not Have to be Bad
Often salads are thought of as diet food, and diet foods are not thought of as desirable. A popular acronym found on Mediterranean Diet social media pages is WOE. WOE stands for this ‘way of eating’ understanding how people feel about diet food. Using the phrase ‘way of eating’ takes the negativity out of the word diet. This blog encourages you to leave off the negative connotations on the words diet and salads. Neither are negative and both can be delicious.
Most people equate a diet as temporary and equate it with words like deprivation, reduced, restriction and hunger. When asked SIRI told me, “a diet is the kind of food that a person, animal or community habitually eats”. SIRI also told me “it is a special course of food to which one restricts oneself, either to lose weight or for medical reasons”. I merged both definitions to define the Mediterranean Diet. The Mediterranean Diet is the kind of food people have chosen to celebrate health by taking the time to enjoy preparing food and enjoy mindful eating together! Olive oil, whole grains, fruits and vegetables, especially leafy-greens, are an important part of that celebration.
Greens and Lettuces Added to the Plate
Enhance meals by adding salad right to the plate. I pile simply dressed arugula on a pizza. Roasted vegetables and fresh spinach with warm gnocchi is one of my favorite lunches when the summer sun starts cooling enough to eat outside in the middle of the day again. A wheat wrap is made filling with only one egg when it is loaded with mixed greens, seasoning and olive oil on my Easy Egg Wrap. My absolute favorite is spicy hot Mexicali food piled high with cool, crisp iceberg lettuce on my Mediterranean Tostadas. Adding a side of greens and lettuce to my favorite dishes balances my plate. I eat less of the heavy items while adding more leafy greens to my day – a principle of the Mediterranean Diet.
A dear friend told me that I eat “rabbit” food. Alright, I admit that I do like lettuce and greens. I take pleasure in all sorts of lettuce: Boston, Bibb, iceberg, romaine, arugula, spinach, mixed greens to name a few. Maybe rabbits got it going on? But as much as I like greens, I was never the type of girl to order a salad when I went to a restaurant or plan it for a meal. That has changed since really embracing the Mediterranean Diet.
Greens and Lettuce ARE the Plate
While I enjoy adding healthy sides of lettuce and greens to my meals, integrating sides onto my lettuce and greens is my new favorite quick meal. It is common to add a breast of chicken or a piece of fish or shrimp to a salad. Using the Mediterranean Diet principles, I try to integrate food from the bottom tier of the Mediterranean Diet pyramid into my salads. I love to add warm root vegetables, fresh grains, dried fruits and unique dressing making salads perfect for fall.
Last Saturday I made a delicious salad of mixed greens fresh from the farmer’s market. I topped the salad with Rustic Smashed Potatoes and dressed the greens with a hearty Creamy Avocado Basil dressing. It is healthy, but it tastes indulgent. A perfect fall salad is not your typical diet food and is anything but boring!
