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Put
the power of salads to work for you
Aug 14, 08
Suzanne Havala Hobbs
There’s still time to leverage
the diet-power of slimming summer fruits and vegetables. One
way to do it: Make salads a daily routine now through the
end of the season.
It’s easy to do this time of year when local gardens
are producing at full capacity and family and friends give
away backyard tomatoes and zucchini. Farmers markets have
plenty of onions, bell peppers, cucumbers, potatoes, eggplant,
radishes, lettuce, carrots, summer squash and fresh herbs,
too.
They’re all you need to make a different kind of salad
every day.
Pair a salad with a slice of good bread. It’s a quick
and easy meal that’s light and cool and easy to digest.
The ingredients are low in calories because they’re
full of dietary fiber and fluid. Salads fill you up without
filling you out.
They’re also good for you in other ways.
Salads made from fresh fruits and vegetables tend to be low
in cholesterol, saturated fat and sodium and rich sources
of vitamins, minerals and other beneficial phytochemicals.
Some are good sources of protein, too, if they include rice,
pasta, beans, nuts or seeds.
So they can stand alone as a one-dish meal.
Most salads keep in the refrigerator for three or four days.
They’re ready to take out and serve, so they’re
ready when you are.
In most cases, you don’t even need a recipe.
When you envision a salad, you may be thinking of leafy greens.
There are plenty of beautiful varieties of lettuce to use
this time of year. Greens do make a nice backdrop for salads
of all kinds.
Lettuce-based salads are also useful when you need a quick
filling for pocket or wrap sandwiches, as a foundation for
a scoop of potato salad on a plate or to line a sliced tomato
sandwich on whole wheat toast.
But my favorite salads don’t contain any lettuce at
all. For example:
* Pickled beets and onions. Toss cooked, fresh beets with
vinegar, oil, a dash of sweetener and a big handful of chopped,
sweet onion. Many easy recipes are available on the Web.
* Cucumber and tomato salad. Vary it by adding chopped onion,
fresh dill, basil or black olives. Use vinegar and oil to
make your own dressing or use whatever bottled Italian or
other oil-based dressing you have on hand.
* Garbanzo bean and cherry tomato salad. Mix rinsed, canned
garbanzo beans, cherry tomato halves, chopped green onions
and bell peppers, black olives and fresh basil in any proportion
you like. Toss it with vinaigrette dressing. I add a dash
of hot sauce, too.
* Coleslaw. You can make it with light mayonnaise, but I prefer
vinegar, oil and cracked black pepper or any bottled, oil-based
salad dressing. For a change of pace, try using rice vinegar.
Add grated carrot, red cabbage, chopped onion, caraway seeds,
golden raisins or grape halves. Liked mixed green salad, coleslaw
is also handy as a quick sandwich filling.
Salads are a good way to use up odds and ends around the kitchen.
Every so often, collect the leftover green onions, bell peppers,
tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, radishes – whatever you
find – and combine them in a colorful marinated vegetable
salad.
The same goes for fruit.
If you have watermelon, cantaloupe, grapes, blueberries or
plums that have been sitting around for a few days, slice
them into a bowl and toss with a teaspoon of extra-fine granulated
sugar (it dissolves quickly) or nonfat vanilla yogurt thinned
with a little fruit juice.
For heartier salads, toss chopped, fresh vegetables with cooked
rice, quinoa (an ancient grain available in natural foods
stores), wheat berries or whole wheat bow tie or rotini pasta.
Sadly, summer won’t last forever. Enjoy the season’s
bounty now.
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