Garden Salads - The Ultimate Antioxidant Food

One could say that a fresh garden salad is the best source of antioxidants you can find. A variety of colorful vegetables, picked straight from the garden, and eaten raw, is packed with vitamins and antioxidants at their finest. However, don't just think of salads as a bowl full of lettuce - the best and healthiest salads take a more creative approach, and can incorporate a wider variety of fruits and vegetables than you might first imagine.

A simple garden salad (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Growing a salad garden is all about looking forward to the harvest.  In our imagination, all our hard work seems to come together in one big salad bowl.  No matter what we plant, we can see it all freshly picked and served right out of the garden in all its glory with a nice, light dressing. 

But, sometimes our imagination doesn't quite take shape when we start planting. We suddenly get limited in our thinking when it comes to salads.  We know we should plant some lettuce.  We know we should plant something to go on top of the lettuce, like tomatoes, and cucumbers.

From the first glimmer of the perfect garden, to the reality of the harvest, something gets lost.  It could be all the hard work, or it could be there are too many choices.  Perhaps we fall into the same pattern each growing season.  No matter what the reason, our beautiful harvest salad bowl becomes mundane - and less healthy than it could potentially be.

Is there something we could do between planting leaf lettuce for the bottom of our salad and planting tomatoes for the top?  There sure is!  We can get our bountiful gourmet salad back in our imagination, in our garden, and on our table by following a few simple tips to create the basis for our beautiful and healthy salad - you'll add a lot more antioxidant vitamins - not to mention flavor!

Choose Creative Greens For Your Salad Base

Sometimes all a gourmet garden salad needs is different types of greens to make it something unique, interesting, and more flavorful. Step away from the standard lettuce varieties you've planted year after year and consider the countless varieties of lettuce available, and so much more.

You'll recognize some of these greens from a fancy dinner menu.  Why not include them in your own garden and on your own table?  Plant gourmet greens like arugula, endive, Bibb, Boston, radicchio, watercress, and spinach (packed with vitamins & antioxidants) along with the better known varieties of romaine lettuce and  red and green leaf lettuce. A mixture of young salad greens, sometimes called mesclun, can also be found in the garden supply shops to plant for your gourmet salad.

A garden salad with lettuce, sundried tomatoes, cherry tomatoes, beets, cucumber and feta cheese (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

Think beyond lettuce and plant vegetables like kale, kohlrabi, mustard, Swiss chard, escarole, and collard greens.  And don't forget red and green cabbage. There are many vegetables that can be turned into the 'bed' to create a new and interesting salad.  For instance, grow broccoli and use the stems to create a salad by shredding the tender insides.  Shave curls from firm fresh cucumbers to create another surprising basis for a salad bowl.

Sweet onions tossed with balsamic vinaigrette can also form the 'bed' of your salad.  Add more crunch with sweet carrot shreds, or even a bit of spicy 'bite' with chopped radishes.  Who says a salad has to be 'green?'  But, if you want to include some green to keep the comfort level of your salad, flash-blanch some string beans and toss in with the onions.  Or, try tossing your sweet onions and balsamic vinaigrette salad with snow peas or cucumber slices.  Your 'greens' – the bed or basis of your salad – can really be any color, just as long as it can support the other ingredients.

As you can see, the bed or greens of a good gourmet salad can be as varied as the toppings - and more variety means more antioxidants.  Look beyond a leaf of lettuce to find the surprising ingredients needed to bring your dreams of a glorious - and super healthy - garden salad to light.

Be sure to check back Friday for a really tasty gourmet garden salad recipe packed with vitamins, antioxidants, and flavor!