I usually have salad for lunch these past months as it's my favourite current thing to have. My basic salad is iceberg lettuce, cherry tomato varieties, grated carrot, grated raw beetroot, telegraph cucumber, celery, and a splash each of NZ evoo and quality balsamic vinegar and some good grinds of sea salt. To this I always add a handful of corn kernels that I heat just slightly in a pot on the stove. The corn kernels were grown in our garden, taken off the cob and put straight into the freezer. I've just run out of them and am surprised and disappointed to find the supermarket corn, in comparison, has no flavour. (Edited to add that my second purchase of supermarket frozen corn was a Wattie's packet instead of a McCain's packet and the Wattie's corn has vastly superior flavour to the McCain's - which had virtually no flavour at all)

Today I didn't have any lettuce left so I sliced up some Brussels sprouts, cooked them a little and added them to the salad. I also had no cucumber left so I grated raw zucchini in instead. Nutritionally, the zucchini is far superior to the cucumber so I like to do this substitution. (See nutrition info below.) I call it "do you want to up-nutrition that?". Also, perhaps the zucchini has less pesticide load than the cucumber.

I wondered if it was possible to put raw grated pumpkin (supermarket squash) in but it's too tough to eat and not pleasant enough. The same goes for raw grated kumara. Grated raw swede is edible but not enjoyable enough. Apparently raw turnip is better than swede but it's almost impossible to find turnip for sale in a provincial town. I like trying new ideas in my salad.

Some days I add other things such as broccoli or cauliflower lightly cooked, and sometimes leftover oven baked vegs warmed again.

The salad's very filling but it never makes me wish I hadn't eaten it and it doesn't make me feel tired.

Sometimes I feel like a little piece of fish (hoki, tarakihi...) on the side, or a lightly pan-cooked egg but not very often.

I'm writing all this because I enjoy my lunch salad a lot

100g zucchini / cucumber:
Protein zucchini 1.5g cucumber 0.3g
Vitamin A zucchini 248IU cucumber 54.6IU
Vitamin C zucchini 21.1mg cucumber 1.5mg
Vitamin D ~ ~
Vitamin E zucchini 0.1mg cucumber 0.0mg
Vitamin K zucchini 5.3mcg cucumber 8.5mcg
Thiamin zucchini 0.1mg cucumber 0.0mg
Riboflavin zucchini 0.2mg cucumber 0.0mg
Niacin zucchini 0.6mg cucumber 0.1mg
Vitamin B6 zucchini 0.3mg cucumber 0.0mg
Folate zucchini 36.0mcg cucumber 3.6mcg
Vitamin B1 zucchini 20.0mcg cucumber 20.0mcg
Pantothenic Acid zucchini 0.2mg cucumber 0.1mg
Choline zucchini 11.8mg cucumber 3.1mg
Betaine zucchini 0mg cucumber 0.1mg
Calcium zucchini 18.6mg cucumber 8.3mg
Iron zucchini 0.4mg cucumber 0.1mg
Magnesium zucchini 21.1mg cucumber 6.8mg
Phosphorus zucchini 47.1mg cucumber 12.5mg
Potassium zucchini 325mg cucumber 76.4mg
Sodium zucchini 12.4mg cucumber 1.0mg
Zinc zucchini 0.4mg cucumber 0.1mg
Copper zucchini 0.1mg cucumber 0.0mg
Manganese zucchini 0.2mg cucumber 0.0mg
Selenium zucchini 0.2mcg cucumber 0.2mcg
Fluoride zucchini ~ cucumber 0.7mcg
Total Omega-3 fatty acids zucchini 58.3mg cucumber 2.6mg
Total Omega-6 fatty acids zucchini 34.7mg cucumber 14.6mg



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/02/2017 03:39AM by J1.

I used to love raw swede as a kid in the UK. Really didn’t like it cooked.. Apples, raw mushrooms, finely sliced couldi be used in salads. I made a salad last night using very finely diced dried apricots, raw apples, slithered almonds with spinach leaves, red onion. It was dressed with a dresing using raw apple cider vinegar.

Karen, do you mean cauli when you say "couldi" - otherwise I don't know what couldi is. I have tried raw mushrooms but I'm not a big fan of them raw - they're lovely done in the oven! Actually, I really like cubed swede done in the oven too.

Oh, silly me, I've immediately realised you just meant apples and raw mushrooms could be used in salads. Thanks for the suggestions!



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/15/2017 09:04PM by J1.