Crunchy…. Creamy…. Refreshing…. Satisfying: Building the perfect salad

Salads are a big part of a healthy, plant-based diet. Yet, you want to make delicious, interesting salads. Some boring lettuce and cucumber just won’t do. I’ve put together 4 Simple Chef’s Tips for creating the best vegan salads. Plus, some hints on making the ultimate oil-free salad dressing. No more boring salads!

4 Chef’s Tips to make the Ultimate Plant-Based Vegan Salad

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Chef Tip 1: Consider Color

Color creates that first appeal to entice you towards eating a vegan salad.  It draws you in. You start eating with your eyes first, and color is the key to delicious “eye candy”.

Color is also probably the easiest step to master in the whole foods, plant-based world.  When it comes to color, the rainbow of healthy vegetables provides endless opportunity.  You’re probably already thinking of a big, colorful bowl full of orange carrots, red tomatoes, green cucumbers…maybe some yellow bell pepper or crimson radishes.

Experiment outside of the normal color ingredients, though.  Heirloom fruits and vegetables come in a variety of colors beyond normal expectations. Use rainbow carrots to add purple, white, and red hues.  Slice up some purple or black tomatoes.  Thinly shave pink French Breakfast Radishes.  Or, dice some white bell peppers.

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Chef Katie’s Twist on Color:  Create a Salad that is the SAME COLOR

Rather than just play with a variety of color, I challenge you to create a plant-based bowl that is full of just one color.  For instance, try creating a vegan Green Bowl with a variety of green vegetables:  Zucchini Noodles, Green Romanesco, Arugula, and Spicy Tunisian Chermoula Sauce. Create a Purple Bowl with: Purple Tomatoes, Purple Basil, Oil-Free Balsamic Reduction, and Chia Seed.

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Chef Tip 2: Balance Textures

It’s simple:

Interesting Textures = Interesting Food

When creating a delicious vegan salad, it’s important to have interesting texture. You want to balance crunchy with creamy by using whole foods, plant-based ingredients highlighting each of those textures.

Well, the types of vegetables you choose will determine how much texture is already in your salad to start.  For the crunchiest texture, go for raw vegetables like carrots, broccoli, cauliflower, and radishes.  On the flip side, balance these crisp ingredients with more tender vegetables like cucumber, yellow summer squash, mushrooms, and cherry tomatoes.

For a bit of creaminess, use ingredients like canned cannellini beans, red kidney beans, cooked rice, ripe avocado, roasted butternut squash, or roasted sweet potatoes.  The dressing you choose to make can also add creaminess.

Chef Katie’s Simple Tips for Adding Interesting Texture to Vegan Salads:  

#1 Shave Those Veggies

Sometimes the raw flavor of vegetables like cauliflower and broccoli can be “too healthy”.  As much as I love plants, there is a fine line between delicious and rabbit food. Chopping into a big piece of raw cabbage can feel like rabbit food. However, shaving that cabbage thinly and tossing it with thinly-sliced apples can be a delicious slaw.

A Japanese Mandolin is a hand kitchen tool to use just for this purpose. You can use to thinly shave cabbage, cucumbers, radishes, and even stalks of broccoli.  Plus, a veggie spiralizer also helps this thinly shaving vegetables. Use it to create thin noodles of carrots, zucchini, and beets.  Simply by cutting the vegetables into smaller pieces, you easily create more tender textures in your salad.

#2 Add some Crunch with Nuts and Seeds

For an easy way to add quick texture to vegan salads, consider nuts and seeds.  Crunchy pumpkin seeds, roasted cashews, and roasted sunflower seeds are some of my favorite easy, healthy, plant-based toppings.  Skip the packaged croutons. Rather, you can keep a small bag of these in your pantry and sprinkle on your salads a few for quick, crunchy topping.

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Chef Tip 3: Use Flavors from All Over the World

When it comes to adding delicious flavor to your vegan salads, the world is full of possibilities. Global flavors can come from all of the components of your salad:

• Add fresh herbs to your salad dressing.
• Add dried spices to roasted vegetables.
• Choose vegetables from a particular region or country.
• Add grains or beans that reflect a specific culture.
• Finish with vinegar or acid (like lime or lemon juice)

First, I recommend choosing a specific cuisine and playing with those flavors.  For example, a bowl of tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers can become a Big ‘Ole Italian salad with red wine vinegar and dried oregano. A bowl of quinoa, black beans, and Easy Oil-Free Avocado Lime Dressing becomes a Mexican Fiesta Bowl. Try to stick with one part of the world and choose whole food, plant-based ingredients found in that area.

Chef Katie’s Guide for Basic Global Flavors:

• Italian: Tomatoes, basil, chickpeas, oregano, balsamic vinegar
• French: Fennel, lentils, tarragon, chives, lavender, Champagne vinegar
• Mexican: Rice, black beans, avocado, cilantro, cumin, chipotle, chili peppers, lime
• Japanese: Soba noodles, edamame, bean sprouts, Japanese eggplant, miso paste, tamari (or soy sauce), ginger, red chili, sesame seeds
• Indian: Basmati rice, chickpeas, lentils, cauliflower, peas, eggplant, okra, curry powder, cumin, ginger, lime, coconut
• Southwest US: Corn, pinto beans, butternut squash, zucchini, chili powder, smoked paprika
• For more help, check out these helpful guides:
  • Mexican Cooking 101: Chef’s Guide for Delicious, Plant-Based Authentic Flavor
  • Indian and Italian Cuisines: 6 Things you Already Know about Italian Food Can Help you Understand Indian Cuisine
  • Irish Food 101 and St. Patrick’s Day Healthy Vegan Recipes
  • Spice Essentials Guide: Chef’s Tips for How to Use Spices for Delicious, Healthy Cooking

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Chef Tip 4: Make a Delicious, Oil-Free Salad Dressing

Let’s be honest, what can make or break a salad is the dressing. On the one hand, dressings can be the fattening, calorie-bombs that throw all sense of healthy out the window. On the other hand, you don’t want dry lettuce or an astringent vinegar. Plus, dressings can have sneaky dairy, cheese, eggs, sugar and even gluten — making it challenging for anyone trying to avoid these. Figuring out how to create a delicious oil-free, vegan dressing can be daunting.

Chef Katie’s Beginner Plant-Based Dressing Tip:  Start with Hummus

If you’re totally lost on the thoughts of making your own salad dressing, start with store-bought hummus.  Choose from any of your favorite flavors, like roasted garlic, spicy chipotle, creamy spinach, or roasted red pepper. Try to find a brand with no oil, cheese, or dairy in the ingredients list.  

To make your vegan salad dressing, combine a few spoonfuls of hummus in a small bowl with a couple teaspoons of warm water.  Use a fork to mix together, until thin enough to pour.  Add more water to thin, or more hummus to thicken, until you get a creamy consistency.

Chef Katie’s Intermediate Plant-Based Dressing Tip: Start with Whole Food Fat

Most traditional salad dressings start with oil.  To make an oil-free salad dressing, start instead with a whole foods fat. For this, think about nut butter, seed butters, and avocado. Peanut butter, almond butter, and tahini work great for making a quick, vegan dressing. Also, ripe avocado can be mashed up for dressing.  

To make the flavor pop, add a couple teaspoons of an acid like fresh lime, rice vinegar, or lemon.  Add enough warm water (just like you did with the hummus dressing) to get a creamy, pour-able consistency.  Season with spices, salt, and pepper.  You’re ready to go.

Chef Katie’s Advanced Plant-Based Dressing Tip: Pureed Beans, Sweet Potato, Tofu, and Soaked Cashews

When you’re ready to get a little fancier with your oil-free, plant-based salad dressings, you can make your own base by pureeing ingredients like soaked cashews, tofu, or white beans.  These recipes take a little more preparation, and a bit more attention to measuring, but then you have more control over what goes in the dressing.  

These whole foods ingredients have been the base for many veganized versions of my favorite salad dressings. I’ve used them to make a creamy Green Goddess Silken Tofu Dressing, and spicy Chipotle Cashew Dressing, and a delicious Oil-Free Vegan Caesar Dressing.

Pretty much all of these ingredients can be swapped out for each other, giving you plenty of opportunity to play with different flavors and textures.  This also lets you play with calorie density — you can choose how rich or how low-fat you want your dressing.

Get your Salad On!

Hungry yet?

Here are some of my favorite plant-based vegan salad recipes.  All are whole foods and oil-free.  To see the full list of salad possibilities, check out the “Salads and Slaw” section.  Or just search “Salad”.

The Ultimate Whole Foods, Plant-Based Vegan Salad Recipe Collection

Make the Ultimate Vegan Salad? Please Share!

If you use any of these tips or ideas to create your ultimate vegan salad, please share. Comment below or tag me on:

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