Easy Last Minute Salads

An easy way to add vegetables into your every day eating routine is by making a quick salad for or with lunch or dinner. The key is having a few key veggies on hand so you can chop them up, throw them in a bowl, whip up a delicious salad dressing, and eat fifteen minutes later.

The first thing to do is create a list of fruits, vegetables and pantry items to buy each week so you'll always have the ingredients on hand to prepare a quick salad. The easiest way I've found to do this is to imagine you are going to Eat All the Colors. Buy a green vegetable, then something orange, maybe something yellow, down the line so that when you put your salad together, it's beautiful and delicious.

• Green: Leafy greens, lettuces, leeks and scallions, cucumbers, zucchinis, green zebra tomatoes, herbs like cilantro, parsley, and basil, and sprouts of all kinds
• Orange: Carrots, orange heirloom and sungold tomatoes, golden beets, nasturtiums
• Yellow: Yellow tomatoes, crookneck squash
• Red: Beets, tomatoes of all kinds, radishes
• Purple: Red cabbage, red onions, purple sweet peppers, radicchio
• Brown: Olives, eggplant
• White: Turnips, jicama
• Pink: Watermelon radishes, chioggia beets, daikon radishes, shallots

Jump to:

• Reasons People Give for Not Eating Fruits & Veggies
• Fruits and Veggies to Have on Hand for Salads
• Instructions
• Equipment
• Resources
• Storage
• Related
• Consider This

Reasons People Give for Not Eating Fruits & Veggies

In studies conducted by the National Institutes of Health, participants gave the following reasons for not eating the recommended minimum servings of fruits and vegetables. One of the missions of Eat All the Colors is to help you overcome these obstacles if you want to eat healthier and feel better. I'll be writing further about each of these topics in the future, but here are some good starting points.

• Fruits and vegetables go bad too quickly: If you are committed to eating more vegetables, you'll need to be somewhat strategic with your planning and shopping. Salad ingredients are perishable and most only stay fresh in the refrigerator for a few days. But, let's face it. All food is perishable. One way or another, you are figuring out how to get yourself fed. Why not make feed yourself with feel-better food? You may not even realize how much better you could feel.
• They do not satisfy hunger: While fruits and vegetables are high in fiber and volume, they are relatively low in calories so they might not provide enough energy to fully satiate you. Here are three easy ways to fix that: 1) combine vegetables with protein and healthy fats; 2) include nutrient-dense varieties like avocados, broccoli and sweet potatoes in your meals; and 3) eat larger quantities.
• They don't taste good: There are so many reasons why someone would have an aversion to eating fruits or vegetables. These can range from early childhood experiences and cultural and social factors, to the influences of texture and smell, the lack of cooking knowledge and the especially poor quality of industrial produce. Luckily, it's never too late to start. There are many fruits and vegetables to try and a wide variety of preparation options at your fingertips as long as you are interested in exploring and experimenting.
• They are too expensive: If you shop in a supermarket, it may be true that perishable foods like fruits and vegetables can seem expensive, especially when compared to ultraprocessed foods that are produced and packaged to last forever. Here's where a change in mindset can be helpful. Investing in the nutritional density of fruits and vegetables to keep you healthy is most likely a better deal than the costs of healthcare will be later. Remember, chronic diseases like diabetes, heart disease, cancer take years, sometimes decades to develop. Eating healthy now is the best insurance against potentially negative outcomes later.
• They take too long to prepare: If you are ordering take out, eating at a restaurant, buying prepared food, or making food at home, you're still spending time and effort on feeding yourself. If you're serious about feeling and performing better, you can easily dedicate that time and effort to preparing "better-for-you" food.

At the end of the day, if you want to eat more fruits and veggies and feel better as a result, you'll figure out how to do it. You get better at what you practice. Hint: Everything action you take is practice. In other words, what you do every day is what you'll get better at.

Fruits and Veggies to Have on Hand for Salads

When you do your shopping for the week, make sure to pick up fruits and vegetables for quick and easy salads so they're always handy. Remember, fruits and vegetables grow seasonally. Check to see what's in season where you live. Here's what I look for at the Farmer's Market (depending on the time of year).

• Lettuce: Try romaine, red or green leaf, little gems, butter lettuce, mache, or mesclun.
• Leafy greens: Look for swiss chard, kale, collard greens or beet or radish greens.
• Bitter lettuces and greens: Bitter greens are great for digestion and bloating. Try arugula, fennel, radicchio, or dandelion greens, among others.
• Carrots: Carrots come in many varieties and colors these days. I love the basics, but why not experiment with some different shapes and sizes?
• Onions: Red onions, scallions (green onions), leeks, or shallots.
• Radishes: There are so many different radishes - some are mild, some are spicy. Try watermelon radishes, French breakfast radishes, cherry belle radishes, daikons and so many others.
• Peppers: I like the sweeter peppers like the bell peppers in all colors and the cubanelles, but there are also many, many peppers with a spicy kick. Try them all to see which ones you like best.
• Tomatoes: There are so many tomato varieties to love, especially if you shop at a farmers market or at a local family farm. But, you'll never ever get the chance to try them if you just shop at the supermarket. Go take an adventure this summer (tomatoes only grow in the heat of summer).
• Avocados: Avocados make every salad better. Hass avocados are the most popular ones, but there are also larger and creamier Reed avocados and Lamb Hass, Gwen avocados and others.
• Cucumbers: I love Persian cucumbers for salads because the skins and seeds are edible, but you could also try English cucumbers, Japanese cucumbers, lemon cucumbers, garden cucumbers, and Armenian cucumbers. Each is wonderful in its own way.

Instructions

When you're assembling a last minute salad, there are really no formal instructions. If you've got fresh vegetables, a beautiful bowl, and a sharp knife, you're half way there.

There are a few keys to making delicious salads:

• Make sure your vegetables are as fresh as possible: Buy at a Farmer's Market or a local family farm in your area if at all possible. Barring that, find a market in your area that takes good care of their produce by keeping it hydrated and rotating out products when they are past their prime.
• Be adventurous: Try different vegetables and different varieties of veggies you already enjoy so that you're constantly expanding your options. You won't love everything, but you could find some new fruits and vegetables that you do love.
• Make your own salad dressings: The dressings you buy in a store contain chemicals, emulsifiers and sometimes poor quality oils. Making your own ensures that every salad will be delicious and better-for-you. Here's a recipe for one of my go-to salad dressings. It's so easy and comes together in about five minutes!

Equipment

• Salad bowl: If you're going to assemble a salad, you'll most likely need a bowl to put the salad in. I love wooden bowls for salads because they provide an earthiness that really makes the colors of the salad pop. Purchasing a wooden bowl from a wood craftsperson instead of a chain store also supports local businesses and artisans. However, do some research. First, buy a bowl made of a hard wood like cherry or walnut so the bowl is dense and durable. Then, confirm that the woodmaker has applied a food-safe finish like linseed oil and/or beeswax to seal the wood's pores, prevent moisture absorption which can lead to warping, bacteria growth, and potential food contamination, and allow for easy cleaning while maintaining the wood's integrity. I like the ones I've seen from Holland Bowl Mill and New Hampshire Bowl & Board.
• Cutting board: Protect your counters and your knives with a good cutting board like this set from OXO. These boards are easy to use, easy to maintain and come with a groove around the edges to catch drips so you can keep your counters, floors and hands clean.
• Chef's knife: Use a good chef's knife to cut the denser vegetables like carrots, radishes, red cabbage, cucumbers and onions and so many other ingredients that require a clean cut. I use this one from Henckels.
• Serrated knife: You'll also want a serrated knife to use for tomatoes because, while tomatoes are generally soft in the middle, that middle is surrounded by a rubbery skin that needs to be punctured by a very sharp blade so the cut is made cleanly and doesn't smush the tomato. I like this one from Tojiro, which is light, easy to use and a good value.

Resources

• How to find a Farmer's Market: I think the easiest way to find a Farmer's Market in your area is just to search online for exactly that. There are usually a few that are scheduled in different locations on different days. You could also check out resources from government agencies, like this one from the USDA, though I find that they are not always up-to-date.
• How to find local Family Farms: You could also search for local family farms in your area with just a basic search using those words or sometimes Local Harvest has resources that are helpful.

Storage

Salads don't store well because once vegetables are cut, more surface area is exposed to oxidation. I recommend preparing just as much salad as you can eat in one sitting. You'll learn over time how much of each vegetable you like.

Related

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Consider This

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