Vegetable Salad/ Healthy Salad / Mediterranean Salad

Vegetable Salad a day keeps disease and ageing away! This new year add more youthful energy and vigour to your routine diet with a bowl of fresh veggies! If you are determined to stay fit, and if you have a New Year resolution list that includes eating wisely, this simple Vegetable salad recipe is for you. I know few friends who substitute salad for meals, in order to reduce weight. In my Opinion, Salads should be part of your mindful eating, and not a substitute for meals. Mindful eating is all about paying attention to what you eat, eating moderately and enjoying every bite. So, skip the fad diets, eat healthy food and enjoy it too! That is my New year Mantra!

As you all know, vegetable salads are packed with nutritious vitamins and minerals, are lower in fat and calories, refreshes and energizes you. All the best reasons to include them in your meals. But I would not advise substituting this Vegetable salad for meals. Like soups, it leaves you half full, helping you to cut down on the fatty meals. This Mediterranean style salad, (not fully, I tweaked the ingredients to suit my taste buds) is crunchy and delicious with fresh chunks of vegetables and crispy croutons happily coupled with a Greek salad dressing.You can serve it with almost any meal. I particularly love to serve it alongwith Pita bread, Shawarmas, Falafel sandwich, Hummus or Turkish Pide.Check for Pita Bread video recipe here.Also, check my Arabic sweet dumplings recipe, a popular Arabic sweet.

Vegetable salads are great for hydration; seasoned with Olive oil and herbs like garlic and pepper, it is extremely healthy and delicious. You can use your favourite vegetables for this, but I love the combo of carrots, English cucumber, tomatoes, Colorful bell peppers, Black olives, Lettuce and some butter fried croutons (and some seasoned sausages to entice my kids).

If you like soups, check my Chicken Manchow soup, Homemade chicken soup, Creamy Palak soup, Tomato Rasam, Chicken and Broccoli soup etc. Also, check my healthy Vegetarian recipes like Sprouts thoran, Cherupayar Vazhakoombu thoran, healthy Kovakka thoran, Cabbage Cherupayar thoran, Hummus dip, Whole wheat Pita Bread etc.

You really can’t go wrong with this easy vegetable salad. Here is to a year of blessings and beyond! Let’s dig into the recipe.

Ingredients for Healthy Vegetable Salad:

​

Step by step recipe for Vegetable Salad

1. Wash and soak all vegetables in salted water for some time.
2. Peel the carrots and Cucumber.
3. Cut the carrot, onion, tomatoes and cucumber into small chunks.  If you are using cherry tomatoes, cut in halves.
4. Chop the Bell Pepper into cubes.
5. Slice the bread into small squares and shallow fry/ toast in little butter to make croutons.
6. Keep the olives ready.

7. For the Greek Salad dressing, I have used Olive oil as a base and added Lime juice, Vinegar, little roasted Garlic powder, a pinch of Thyme and Basil, Black pepper and little rice vinegar. If you don’t have rice vinegar, use a mild one, as we don’t want to overpower the other flavours.
8. Just mix all the seasonings together with salt. It is actually fun to experiment with seasonings and kick up your salad.
9. You can also add little mustard powder, dried oregano etc. Just make sure that you mix the seasoning just before serving to avoid making it soggy.

10. If you are not a vegetarian, yo can even add fried sausages to take it to another level. I add them to tempt my kids.

11. In a bowl, mix together all veggies (not the croutons) and add the seasoning just before serving and toss everything to combine.

12. Add the croutons and give a final toss and serve the Vegetable salad. Wishing you a healthy year ahead.

Tips:

• You can add red chilli flakes, or more Pepper, if you like it spicier.
• Thyme and oregano lift the flavors.
• Carrots, tomatoes, cucumber, Bell pepper and lettuce complement each other.
• Make sure you soak all veggies in salted water to remove dirt and pesticides.
• Black olives are great antioxidants and contains healthy fats.
• You can adjust the seasonings according to your taste.
• Mix in the seasoning just before serving to avoid getting soggy.

Hope you and your family will enjoy this wonderful and nutritious Salad. Please share with your friends through the share buttons on the side. It will definitely inspire me. Also, if you have great salad recipes, please message or post a comment below. I would certainly try and post your recipe. Thanks and God Bless!!