When lettuce is suspect, deconstruct your salad. If you don’t have access to locally grown greens this summer, but love salads and want to avoid cyclosporiasis, a few changes may be necessary.
Last week, a friend was bemoaning her inability to eat salad during the current outbreak of cyclosporiasis. She had purchased dried fruit instead. This seemed like an odd choice to me, but her idea of salad is a bit fixed, so it made sense to her to go a whole different direction. But that’s not really necessary.
Take away the leafy greens and you can still have a salad full of delicious, fresh, veggies, fruit and protein. You can also include quinoa, rice, or pasta. When deciding on ingredients, think of it as a deconstructed salad you’d make if you had a bed of leafy greens to top.
Keep things traditional by using slices of yellow or zucchini squash, carrots, bell pepper, tomato, and cucumber. If desired, add broccoli, red onion, cubed cheese (your choice) or cottage cheese. Top with bacon, sunflower seeds, or raw almonds.
If you want to combine your salad and protein, add boiled egg, grilled chicken, fried chicken, cubed ham, roast beef, pulled pork, or deli meat.
Use broccoli for a green base but instead of adding the traditional bacon and cheese, use raisins, or dried cranberries, and apples plus raw almonds, walnuts, or sunflower seeds.
Go southwest with a combination of black beans, corn, pico de gallo, and cheese. Add some pizzaz with cilantro and a sour cream dressing.
Combine throwback Thursday with a carrot, raisin, walnut salad. My grandmother served this regularly, but sans walnuts. You may also want to add pineapple.
Keep it simple. Start with a bed of sliced mushrooms. Top with herbs, fresh garlic, olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper. Add a little heat with pepper slices or flakes.
Lean Mediterranean with chickpeas, olives, tomato, scallions, and dill or chickpeas, black beans, cucumber, onion, garlic, parsley, and mint. Both versions are delicious with quinoa.
Like vibrant color? Make a marinated beet salad with onion, avocado, and edamame.
More in the mood for pastels? Make pear salad with goat cheese and spiced pecans. Who needs greens?
Consider returning to tradition with a caprese salad. Tomato, fresh mozzarella, and basil have always played well together.
Finding a way to include fresh vegetables and fruit is important to a healthy diet even as recalls and parasite risks linger. But before you ditch salad made from fresh vegetables, try deconstructing it.
