Boring salad? Not mine!

As a young kid, I never liked salads. Especially since I grew up in a traditional Chinese household where all our vegetables were cooked, eating raw vegetable was a strange thing to me. I would walk right by them at buffets, and just poke at them when they came with my entrees. Then I discovered not all salads are born the same way.

I will never forget the time I went to Cape Cod and had the most amazing seafood salad. Wow! The flavors, the crunchiness, the tangyness of the oranges, the sweetness of the cranberries and the freshness of the shrimps! Everything in there was so good! Nothing in that bowl was untouched.

A good salad, a TRUE salad, for me has to contain a couple of ingredients. Dark leafy greens (no lettuce!), some type of protein, some kind of nuts, a sweet or sour component such as dried cranberries or fruits, and lastly cheese. Once this is all done, the dressing can be anything simple like a vinaigrette or oil.

Here's one of my favs including a dressing that only takes three simple ingredients to make:

Kale is an excellent for salads because they actually taste better after a few days!

Ingredients used (no measurements by the way, just put however much you like):
Kale
Carrots
Garlic
Red onion
Almond slices or flaxeed
Cranberries
Cheese (I like Parmesan)
Dash of salt and pepper to taste

For the dressing (enough for a bowl of salad):
1tbs of fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup of extra virgin olive oil
1/2 tbs of honey

Now, do you HAVE to have flax seed or cranberries? No! Put what you want! Throw in some chicken or shrimp. I didn't have cranberries, so I threw in grapes and it tasted great! As long as you've got the dressing and the vegetables, you are golden.