Garden salad

Garden salad

A healthier, tastier upgrade to your standard garden salad – making this common side salad the main dish!

You will need:

  • Mixed greens, I prefer using baby greens
  • a few slivers on red onions
  • 8-10 baby carrots cut into slices
  • 15-20 small broccoli florets – steamed or raw
  • handful of shredded cheddar cheese or parmesan
  • croutons – i made mine from a sliceof leftover bread – cut in small squares, toats witha  little butter on a hot griddle, season with S&P and some mixed herbs
  • For the yogurt ranch – 1 tbsp of greek yogurt, a pinch of onion and garlic powders, salt, pepper, 1/2 tsp sugar and some dill or parsley

1. Layer a bowl with some greens – I have used spinach
2. Top with a variety of vegetables – cut in bite size pieces – I have used thin slivers of red onions, slices of baby carrots and broccoli florets

3. Top with some shredded cheddar cheese – I used a blend of orange and white cheddar
4. Lastly, top with some croutons


5. For the ranch dressing – whisk together 1 tbsp Greek yogurt, a dab of onion powder and garlic powder, salt and finely chopped dill leaves. I like my ranch a little sweet, so I added some sugar to the dressing as well – optional

6. Drizzle the ranch on the salad and serve

  • You can use any mixed greens
  • You can definitely add more vegetables – cherry tomatoes, mushrooms, black olives, etc.
  • I made my croutons with a leftover slice of bread – cut a slice of bread into small pieces, toast on high flame with some butter until crunchy. Season with Italian herbs (optional)
  • For the dressing you can also use parsley or chives instead of the dill. If you have none of these herbs, just add a tiny bit of crushed black pepper!

To read about the art of creating salads, the basic pyramid of salads and other interesting salad recipes, please read my other post.