Light Up Your Summer Table with Four Seasonal Salads

It’s beginning to look a lot like summer,

Everywhere you go! 

Imagine your ideal holiday period.

Are you cuddled up by the fire with your special someone, or perhaps caravanning by the beach with family, tripping overseas in a foreign kitchen, or maybe even camping in the bush?  You may even be lying on the grass at your annual picnic?

Wherever you are, there’s one thing we all can agree on – it’s spending time with your special ones that matters the most… and the food. Okay, maybe two things we can all agree on then.

While festive feasting in Australia may not look like steaming hot chocolates, roads studded with fairy lights and snowflakes, stuffed chooks and bellies filled with pudding, holiday season is still holiday season! While it’s a little too hot for full roasts and mashed potatoes here in Australia, we can still celebrate the season with fresh produce and delicious salads – what could be better?

I’ve created four delicious salad recipes you can make wherever your festivities may take you. Just make sure that when you do enjoy these beauties, you’re enjoying them with your special people.

The only Kale and Strawberry and Avocado Salad you'll need this holiday season.

What do you get when you combine sweetness, bitterness and bright colours?

My Kale and Strawberry Salad, of course!

This totally good-for-you salad is filled with veggies, berries and healthy fats which make a nutrient-dense meal suitable for anyone.

Our forest friend, kale, delivers protein, fibre and impressive amounts of vitamin A and C, making it a powerful antioxidant.

Kale’s dynamic partner in crime (and by crime, I mean tasting good because there’s literally nothing harmful about this salad!), strawberries, are full of vitamin C that’ll help boost immunity and even keep wrinkles at bay! 

The combination of the green and the pink make this salad almost too pretty to eat. Almost.

Seeing as this salad is simple and easy to make, it means you’ll have more time to spend with your friends and family this holiday season. You’re welcome.

This welcoming dish brings a touch of summer to your table. and right down to the dressing is a total knockout that'll blow your mind!

Who knew healthy could taste so good?

Kale, Strawberry and Avocado Salad with Speedy Jam Jar Dressing

Serves 2-3


Ingredients:

• 1 bunch kale, chopped into slices
• 1 whole lemon

• 2 TBS Extra Virgin Olive Oil

• Pinch of Celtic Sea Salt
• 1 Avocado Pitted
• ¼ cup pine nuts
• 1 cup strawberries washed and quartered

Speedy Jam Jar Dressing


• ¼ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
• 2 TBS Apple Cider Vinegar

• 1 tsp. sugar free mustard

• ½ shallot, diced

• Pinch Celtic Sea Salt

• 1 TBS wheat-free tamari

Method

• In a large bowl place lemon juice and olive oil and stir then massage it into kale leaves adding a pinch or two of sea salt. Keep massaging until leaves are soft and dark green
• Add remaining ingredients and toss
• To make the dressing whisk all ingredients together

Fig and Goats Cheese (Yum!)

Get ready for an ultimate platter that’ll make you forget all about your run-of-the-mill, sad garden salad.

This Fig and Goats Cheese Platter will wow your guests and make you change the way you think about cooking altogether. This throw-together salad is so simple that it just might work!

I can’t believe it when I hear people say they dislike the taste of figs! Who can possibly deny themselves the pleasure of lusciously sweet and summery figs that have a chewy flesh, smooth skin and crunchy seeded centre? My mouth is watering just thinking about it. Figs are high in potassium that’ll help lower blood pressure. They’re also high in fibre to get things moving on your insides, which is essential with all the over-eating we tend to do around the holiday season! Or you can always try my Love Your Gut powder to remove the junk from your trunk.

Another summer fruit that’s ready to finally get in the spotlight, peaches, are tantalizing for our tastebuds and high in antioxidants which help reduce our disease risk.

Now that we’ve got our fruit sorted, we need to find an edge. This is where Goat’s cheese comes in. Goat’s cheese is high in calcium and essential fatty acids and can be much easier to digest than other cheeses. It’s also known to cause less inflammation in the body than regular dairy and helps aid nutrient absorption. Goat to love that!

Combine these three ingredients with antioxidant-rich greens and one delicious dressing and you’ve got one heck of a platter! Grab the recipe here. 

 Teacup Watermelon Salad

 

As a foodie, there’s something about the changing of season that always brings me joy. I love to see what each season provides me and, form recipes that celebrate produce of the season. While in winter we tend to crave soups and stews, summer provides us with a need for hydrating and fresh produce. Namely, watermelon.

To me, summer just yells watermelon. There’s nothing that adds more bliss to a hot summer day than eating the right piece of sweet and juicy watermelon. While you can enjoy watermelon just on its own, I love putting it into a good watermelon salad. If you’ve never tried watermelon in a salad, you’re in for a treat with this recipe! This salad comes from my book Fast Your Way to Wellness which is full of summer recipes that are as good for your waistline as they are for your soul! It’s perfect for sustaining abounding energy and a healthy weight year-round. 

I’m not sure which genius thought it would be a good idea to combine watermelon with cheese and mint, but whoever it was, I owe them! This interesting collaboration knocks your socks off and keeps you coming back for seconds every time.

While the sweet juiciness of watermelon comes through, it’s balanced by the bite of the crumbled Goat's cheese and cooling zing of fresh mint.

Watermelons are about 92 percent water, making every bite perfectly hydrating! They're also rich in vitamin A, B6 and C, as well as beauty-boosting antioxidants that’ll keep your skin glowing all summer long.

This dainty teacup salad can bring joy on warm days as a refreshing snack, light meal or even dessert.

I’ve dressed this bad-boy with a zesty mixture of lemon and lime, with floral notes of coriander of course, creamy sheep’s milk yoghurt.

Check out the recipe here.

Vegan Caesar Salad

I've taken an alternative approach to your summer menus and created a #meatlessmonday extravaganza! If you’re looking to cater for vegetarians, flexitarians or vegans, you’re definitely going to want to try this one!

While meatless meals are great for our digestion and can make us feel lighter than other ones, often times, meat-free dishes, like faux soy meats, are full of processed ingredients and chemicals that make the whole vegetarian thing not so good after all!

When cooking without meat, be sure to use fresh and natural ingredients. Also remember to include a source of protein, such as beans, seeds, tofu or tempeh.

What’s tempeh, you ask?

Tempeh is made of fermented, cooked soybeans, meaning it’s less processed than tofu and high in protein and fibre. This makes it easier for us to digest and richer in probiotics which are key to increasing our gut microflora; an aspect of health that tends to go out the window in holiday season. Probiotics help break down sugars, control harmful bacteria and improve our immune system so we can enjoy summer and the holidays sniffle-free.

Tempeh has a slightly earthy and sweet taste and is firm and chewy in texture.

My Vegan Caesar salad, made with tofu’s lesser known tempeh, is the perfect Christmas dish. This delicious Caesar salad is so good, you’ll be looking forward to Mondays from now on!

Check it out here.

Enjoy these four seasonal salads and let me know what you think in the comments below.

Lee xo