3 Salads to Warm Your Soul
Think grains, beans or pasta to create satisfying salads when the weather turns cool
This week in my vegan kitchen, I am sharing three salads that promise to warm your soul. The Freekeh Pilaf is a grain-based salad with 4 or 5 grilled vegetables. The Austrian-style Bean Salad uses large runner beans that fuse perfectly with tomatoes and freshly grated horseradish. The Spicy Sesame Noodle Salad – an old friend of mine – uses a thin spaghetti-like pasta that I toss with an incredibly delicious, sweet-sour-spicy sauce and a handful of toasted cashews.
These three salads are great to have on hand when the weather turns cool, or even if your soul needs a bit of soothing comfort. All three recipes will keep in the refrigerator for 2-3 days – a bonus if you do not have time to cook each day. I hope you enjoy getting in your kitchen and making one…or all three.
As always, I appreciate hearing from you, so feel free to leave a comment and let me know what’s on your mind.
Freekeh Pilaf Salad with Grilled Vegetables
I wonder why grain salads are not any more popular. They are simple to make and can last 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator. The chewy texture and nutty flavor make grain salads versatile and adaptable to whatever seasonal vegetables are available.
This pilaf recipe matches the smokiness and chewy nature of freekeh with grilled vegetables and fistfuls of fresh herbs dressed in a zingy lemon vinaigrette. The simple preparation is great when life is hectic. The bonus is the salad is filling and palate pleasing.
This recipe is an example of how grain salads adjust to fit different moods or diets. For example, most grains can be replaced with quinoa or buckwheat and achieve the same results if gluten is a concern. The vegetables are also interchangeable, depending on where you live in the world and what’s in season near you. If you prefer, you can choose to use a tasty vegetable broth in place of the oil to reduce your fat intake.
This kind of versatility proves…at least in my mind…that grain salads are enormously important in a healthy plant-based diet because of their simplicity, nutritional impact, little preparation time and very few dishes to clean-up. What’s not to like about that?