Thinking about salads to serve with Sunday lunch can cause some head scratching. The typical tossed salad can quickly become ho hum. Mixing vegetables that can be eaten raw with fruits and a hint of fresh herbs can brighten the palate and the table.
Vegetables such as cabbage, carrots, snow peas, corn, broccoli stems, beets, sweet peppers, olives, radishes and kohlrabi can be sliced, grated or shredded and be eaten raw. Fruits such as oranges, tangerines, apples, grapes, pears, most types of berries, paw paw, mangoes and pomegranate pair well with vegetables to make raw salads. And fresh herbs like cilantro/coriander, chadon beni (culantro), scallions/green onions, chives, basil, celery, and mint compliment raw salads.
Photo by Cynthia Nelson
With raw veg, fruit and herb salads you can eat them as is or dressed lightly with a vinaigrette or a light sprinkling of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. If you have a sweet creamy dressing a light drizzle works. Don’t over dress the salads and only dress them just before serving.
Kohlrabi is a vegetable that belongs to the cabbage, broccoli, and cauliflower family. Raw it is crisp and crunchy like a carrot. In place of kohlrabi, use cucumber. Cut the cucumber lengthways, scoop out the seeds, pat dry and slice thinly into half-moon shapes.
The ‘recipe’ and quantity of each ingredient is really based on your taste and preference. Here I used kohlrabi, watermelon and mint. Here are some other combos you can make:
- Cabbage, kohlrabi and cilantro/coriander
- Cabbage and snow peas
- Carrots and apples
- Pineapple and cucumbers
- Mangoes and tomatoes
- Olives, tomatoes and cucumbers
- Beets and mangoes
- Watermelon, pineapple, carrots
- Paw-paw, pear and mint
