- Tarun Kapoor is executive chef at Doha’s Horizon Manor Hotel. Send your feedback to:
[email protected]
Salad is a term which is derived from the latin word ‘sal’ which means salt and thus the word ‘salata’ meaning ‘salted things’ came into a wide term used for salad. The role of a salad in our diet can’t be ignored as they provide us with the vital nutrients, antioxidants and mineral and help us maintain our shape and health.
There are numerous studies and plenty of reasons to gulp more of salads in our diet — the first being their fibre content. The salads are rich source of fibre which is very necessary and essential for a healthy individual. It is hard to believe that something like fibre which our body can’t digest is still beneficial for us.
Including fibre in our diet helps to maintain lower cholesterol levels and prevents constipation. Secondly when we include salad in our diet in the form of greens, fruits and vegetables all their nutritional benefits and antioxidants are straightaway transferred to us without experiencing any nutrient loss as in the case of consuming cooked vegetables.
Antioxidants protect us from the harmful radicals. Doctors all over the world always emphasise on including more greens, fruits and vegetables in our diets to make more blood and also having higher antioxidants in our body.
Thirdly losing weight is only a dream for many people. Studies have proven that eating simple green salad can help you overcome the hunger and makes you feel fuller while you consume lesser calories. However, one twist to the salad being health is the dressings which are consumed with salads. Most of the readymade dressings available of the selves are not actually healthy but also increase the calorie intake.
So one needs to be careful regarding the dressing on the salad, avoid mayonnaise, cream and unhealthy oil based dressings. Instead go for healthy options like lemon juice, orange juice, or flavoured vinegars combined with fresh herbs and seasonings to make a healthy dressing.
A salad typically consists of four parts namely base, body, dressing and garnish.
Base: You can choose from a variety of lettuce to make the base of salad, you can also use cabbage or any other flat leaf to serve as a base for it. Base of the salad is optional and you can also make a salad without it if you wish to do so.
Body: The body of the salad can be comprised of anything ranging from fresh fruits, vegetables, chicken, fish, or any other meat or also a combination of these. One needs to be careful as not to make the pieces of ingredients used to make the body too big as they will be difficult to consume. Also, all the ingredients used to make the body of the salad should be cut alike like a capsicum and pineapple julienne salad should have juliennes of both capsicum and pineapple to make them blend together easily and better eye appeal.
Dressing: The dressing is one of the most integral; part of a salad as it enhances the taste of the salad and binds the body of the salad. Dressings can be classical like Caesar dressing, Italian dressing, and French dressing or can be chef’s choice.
Garnish: This completes the salad and is also important in overall salad preparation and make it more eye appealing. There is a saying “you eat with the eyes first and then with the tongue.”
Rocket and dates salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
Rocket lettuce 200gm
Dates, pitted 50gm
Strawberry 50gm
Walnut 50gm
Lemon wedge4 – 6 no
For dressing
Olive oil 50 ml
Lemon juice 15ml
Orange juice 15ml
Honey15ml
Salt ½ tsp
White sesame seeds ½ tsp
Method
Wash and remove excess moisture from the rocket lettuce and keep them in a salad mixing bowl.
Combine pitted dates, sliced strawberry, walnut with rocket lettuce.
In a separate bowl, combine the ingredients for the dressing and whisk together to combine.
Pour the prepared dressing on top of the salad leaves and toss the lettuce to combine well.
Place the prepared salad on a salad bowl and arrange the prepared salad on a bed of iceberg lettuce.
Place lemon wedge on the side and drizzle the remaining dressing on top serve cols
Healthy salad dressings
Dill lemon dressing: Lemon juice 30ml + dill cleaves chopped ½ tsp + sea salt (a pinch) + white pepper powder.
Balsamic vinaigrette: Balsamic vinegar 15ml + olive oil 30ml+ honey 15 ml+ sea salt (a pinch).
Orange honey: Orange juice 30ml + honey 15ml + black pepper crushed (to taste) + sea salt (a pinch).
Lemon vinaigrette: Lemon juice 30ml+ olive oil 30ml + seas salt (a pinch) + crushed pepper (to taste).
Rocket and dates salad. Photo by Manoj Jain
