Summer is the perfect time for salads. You can get creative and, quite frankly, a meal without animal proteins can only do you good (no, I'm not vegan, but I'm not a super meat eater, either). This dish is great, if you don't want to cook, you can even avoid potatoes; I gave some suggestions in the footnotes but the greatness of this recipe is that you can use anything you like, trying to keep it balanced. The most important thing is that you use fresh vegetables that are in season and very good quality dressing.
1 14-oz can Italian cannellini beans, drained and rinsed
1 medium potato, peeled and diced
1 cup cooked spinach and Swiss chards
1 medium carrot
1 small onion
1 orange bell pepper
1/2 head of Romaine lettuce
1 celery stalk
4 tbsp Italian extra virgin olive oil
1 tsp Italian sea salt
3 tbsp Italian balsamic glaze
Italian white or red wine vinegar (optional)
Prepare the vegetables.
Start by cooking potato dices in boiling salted water; thinly slice onions, bell pepper, celery and carrot. Roughly chop chard and spinach; coarsely shred lettuce.
When potato dices are cooked, drain and quickly cool them under running cold water.
Arrange all vegetables, cannellini and potato dices in a big bowl.
Separately, prepare the dressing.
In a small bowl combine oil, balsamic glaze and salt; beat until salt is dissolved and dressing is fluffy.
Pour over your salad, toss well to evenly distribute the dressing and serve.
This recipe serves 2-3
- If you don't like the pungency of raw onions, slice it and transfer to a bowl with water and wine vinegar; let it soak for 10-15 minutes, then drain; you'll taste the difference ;-)
- You can add some extra crunch with 1/2 cup of slivered almonds.
- If you like them, use baby spinach and, if you can find them (or grow them), baby chards.
- Please, do not use Italian dressing found on store's shelves: most of them have nothing Italian in them!!
- You can use Italian red or white wine vinegar, instead of balsamic; or Italian fruit balsamic.
- It's vegan/vegetarian, lactose and gluten free, perfect for diets! And it's a complete dish!!
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