It is no secret that I love my salads and when it comes to making salads there is no rhyme or reason to my methods. I simply chuck some things I like together and see if I like it. In my salad making endeavors, I thus came across some unexpected yet, nonetheless delicious combinations of savory and sweet ingredients. Below you can find three of my favorite combinations.
I think this may be one of the first salads I made that combined the savory with the sweet. I always use mixed lettuce as my base, then I topped it up with some cucumber slices and cherry tomatoes. I added walnuts for a bit of crush and the cherry on top are of course the pomegranate seeds. Which give this salad its sweet and refreshing hint. This combination is great for summer as it is light and easy to whip together. Of course taking out the pomegranate seeds can be cumbersome, but I usually cheat and buy mine prepackaged. If you’d like you could easily bulk up this salad by adding some protein in the form of some roasted or cooked chicken.
This second salad takes more time to put together. This is a combination of lettuce, green asparagus, mango and sundried tomatoes. Again the mango brings some sweetness and freshness to this salad. The yellow also pairs nicely with the green and red and so this looks delectable. The most time consuming part of making this salad are the asparagus. They first need to be cooked or steamed and then left to cool for a few hours before you can use them in the salad. This is the type of salad you can make if you want to impress guest. Serve it with some rye bread with apple spread and crumbled soft goat’s cheese to make this a lunch that no one will say no to.
Finally there is salad that combines some apples with my salad standards. Apples, but also pears make some great salad ingredients. The only downside to using them is that you cannot really take them on the go as they will turn brown within minutes. So this really is a salad that you should only have when you’re eating at home. Other options that you can use instead are tangerine slices or pineapple: in any case almost any fruit will do if you are looking to add some sweetness to your salads.
Other veggies that will add to a savory sweet salad combination are spinach and any type of bell pepper. Spinach is a great leafy green to add some extra nutrients. Bell peppers, especially red ones are naturally quite sweet as are carrots and beetroots of course. So adding those to your salads will add a sweet touch to any salad and lift it up a little bit. As you can see these three salads are all plant based, but you could always add some protein by adding chicken, turkey or cheese. Carbs wise you can eat these with a side of bread, or you could add some fiber by adding puffed quinoa or amaranth.
When it comes to putting together a savory/ sweet salad the options are endless what about serving the following options on a bed of lettuce and/ or spinach, cucumber and any other ready to eat veggies of your choice:
- beetroot & goat’s cheese
- poached pear & blue cheese
- apple, raisins & walnuts
- chicken & cranberries
- curried chicken, mango & cashew nuts
- ham & pineapple
What salad combination is your favorite?