This is how to make a basic chef salad for one, zero frills, no pointless calories, 100% delicious.
Ingredients:
Salad base: (aka; the greens)
- Kale
- Spinach
- Cilantro
- Romane Lettuce
- (Optional) Red Cabbage
Top Veggies:
- Tomato
- Avocado
- Cucumber
Toppings and Dressings:
- Dried Cranberries
- Chopped Walnuts
- Feta Cheese
- Light ranch dressing, mixed with creamy avocado salsa
Directions:
1.) Wash all veggies and drain thoroughly through a colander
2.) Finely tear the Kale into small pieces and put aside. From my experience, kale does not chop well, so I stick to tearing the leaf bunches by hand., (tedious, but WORTH IT for a finely mixed salad!)
3.) Chop spinach finely; stack larger spinach leaves uniformly, then roll the leaves into a cylinder and chop finely through from one end to the other.)
4.) Chop the lettuce finely into strips.
5.) Grab the bunch of cilantro and de-stem by running two fingers from one end of the stem to the other.
6.) Combine the de-stemmed cilantro with the other greens and with the same knife, run through all the greens for one final chop.
7.) Dice tomatoes and cucumbers and add on top of greens
8.) Score 1/2 of a medium avocado, and scoop on top of the salad.
9.) Use a fork to uniformly mix the salad, integrating the avocado into the salad as if you were making guacamole.
10.) Top with dried cranberries, chopped walnuts, and feta cheese.
11.) Use your favorite dressing; mine is a combination of light ranch and avocado salsa for a kick.
On the side: Black Bean Hummus.
Optional Side #1: Roasted potatoes/sweet potatoes (for dinner).
Optional Side #2: A poached/over medium egg seasoned with garlic, salt, pepper and dotted with Sriracha for a kick
Additional salad ingredients you could add/substitute:
- Sautéed (or fresh) Mushrooms
- Sautéed Onions/shallots to top
- A mandarine orange lightly tossed in vinaigrette and topped over the greens
Photos by Tinu Thomas
