Even with the best intentions, we all need to mix things up on the food front. I love to eat salad for lunch because 1) I feel good and 2) I get veggies in for the day, even if dinner goes sideways.

Sometimes I get derailed from good intentions because I am simply bored with my choices. I recently updated my go-to lunch salad for the fall/winter and wanted to share it here.

Side note: Store purchased salad dressings can be full of all kinds of funky additives and stabilizers. Whenever possible they should be made from scratch, and I’ve included a few options that we enjoy below.

Side note two: You could add chicken or other protein to either of these salads. I choose robust greens and ingredients so meat isn’t needed (for me). I also am very generous with the nuts/seeds. Roasted garbanzos would be nice too.

Fall Citrus, Beet and Kale Salad

Beet and Kale Salad
Curly Kale, washed, stemmed and torn in to small pieces
Orange sections, prepped with knife so membranes not included
Thinly sliced fennel bulb, or Belgian endive
Cooked beets, peeled and sliced/bite sized pieces
Roasted walnuts
Salt to taste

Zesty Orange Dressing
2 T rice vinegar
2 T orange juice (fresh squeezed)
zest of ½ orange
¼ C olive oil
salt to tast

Big batch of Zesty Orange Dressing
½ C rice vinegar
½ C fresh squeezed orange juice
zest of two oranges
1 C olive oil
salt to taste

Directions:
1) Toast walnuts either in dry skillet or oven on cookie sheet.
2) To cook beets, place skin on beets in a pot with 2 or so inches of water in bottom. Simmer with lid on pot until beets are tender and pierce easily with for or table knife. Drain in colander. When cool enough to handle, slip off skins, trim ends and slice for salad.
3) Toss all veggies with dressing, garnish with walnuts.

Rainbow Salad and Ginger Miso Dressing

Rainbow Salad
Curly kale
Cucumber coins
Little tomatoes
Shredded raw beet (use food processor)
Shredded raw carrot
½ avocado
Sunflower seeds
Salt to taste

Ginger Miso Dressing
1 C olive oil
¼ C yellow miso
¼ C rice vinegar
1-2 inch fresh peeled ginger, cut in to several chunks
1 clove garlic
Generous squeeze honey
Salt to taste
½ C water

Directions:
1) I use the vitamix to make this dressing and throw everything in except the water to process until smooth.
2) After smooth, add water until it is thin-ish consistency. When you put this dressing in the fridge it will solidify so having a healthy amount of water to thin it out keeps it more useable in the future. Plus it packs plenty of flavor and you just don’t need much thickness to it.
3) Toss Rainbow Salad with Ginger Miso Dressing.

Desperation salad

Toss greens and whatever veggies with olive oil, balsamic and salt.