Salad Love with The Cookbook Club

 Joanne Tracey over at Brookford Kitchen Diaries has started up a monthly cookbook club and the rules such as they are are loose enough that it's easy to follow along and participate. 

This month we were asked to look for some sort of healthy living cookbook. I found Salad Love: Crunchy, Savory, and Filling Meals You Can Make Every Day

The very beginning of the book David explains that he's not a chef or a cook or anything in the culinary field. His book came about naturally after challenging himself to come up with healthy lunches (at his desk!) for a year. He talks about how/where he stores his tools and foods in the office, why he chose to eat mostly non-processed foods, why his has more of a plant-based focus, and how we able to prepare these right at his desk. 

Then the next sections gets into how he assembles his various salads. What he uses for bases, what he uses for proteins, what toppings he adds on, what dressings he's made/uses and goes over the amounts of each for a well-balanced meal.

The bulk of the book is divided into seasons with pages upon pages of beautifully photographed salads to try. Each salad has a simple list of ingredients listed below, a few suggestions for modifications 


I made the apple, celery, walnuts & pomegranate seeds salad. 

Though I loved the bright red pop of color the pomegranate seeds gave the salad, I couldn't find pomegranates at our grocery store so I subbed them out for some pumpkin seeds instead.




The only thing I didn't really like was the dressing (which I only used 1/2 of anyway). It was quick and easy to assemble though! 

Linking up with: Spread the Kindness,







Comments

  1. Your salad looks good. There's a salad in the Magnolia Table cookbook that looks a bit similar to the one that you made. It calls for pecans, pears and apples (among other ingredients) and I am looking forward to making it.

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  2. I have really been craving salads lately. I make my own dressing in a little mason jar with evoo, white wine vinegar, garlic, lemon juice - really whatever you want. I love to add some sort of crunch on top. yum! This looks right up my alley! Also, you might have seen the Garden Cup meal delivery service that my meal prep partner started getting!

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  3. Oh thanks for sharing these- I need some new salad inspo!

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  4. Thank you, thank you for the salad Inspo. I need to do better about making salads. I go in spirts but I know I need to be more consistent.

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    1. We pretty much always have a huge salad bowl in our fridge and eat a bowl each night (and most afternoons for me).

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  5. This cookbook would be great to have on hand! It always amazes me the things people throw in a salad and it turns out amazing!

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    Replies
    1. Yes, me too. There are something I just never really think to throw into a salad.

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  6. Salads are so versatile - just add a bit of protein and you are all set. The addition of pecans looks so good!

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    Replies
    1. Exactly! He even used grains and various pastas for his salads sometimes.

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  7. I love salads so I would love that cookbook!

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    Replies
    1. I bet you would! He definitely ate a wide variety of plants and proteins.

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  8. I used to have a great salad book, but I never did use it much: I tend to just throw in whatever I have and add some oil and vinegar and white pepper!
    www.chezmireillefashiontravelmom.com

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    1. That's how I am with salads too; I'm not very intentional about shopping for ingredients. I also can not imagine making a different small salad each day. I am all about making up a huge tossed salad once or twice a week and portioning out small meals from that throughout the week. It's easy to mix it up with different veggies each week and different toppings each day.

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  9. I have a salad bible, as the title says, and it's a great book. Especially for summer bbq days!

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  10. it's amazing how many ways one can make a salad. Although I tend to make a basic salad for dinner , but I think all those photos would be inspiring to try some of the other type of salads.

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  11. Your salad was beautiful!! I like the flavors they put together. Side note- your nails are beautiful!

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  12. Jodie's Touch of StyleJanuary 17, 2025 at 3:49 PM

    I love that it's written by a regular guy. And that the dressing is made not bought (even though you didn't like it, LOL)...that's one of my future simple swaps because store bought ones can be awful toxic.
    XOXO
    Jodie

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    1. I really liked that too and all of his dressings (there were several pages of them listed individually!) were made from scratch.

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  13. That salad looks fantastic! I need to make more salads in the winter.

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    Replies
    1. They are something we eat more of in spring and summer for sure.

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  14. Now, I'm really hungry for an apple salad! It's one of my favorites. I've never had pomegranate seeds. I really need to try them because I do like pomegranate juice.

    https://marshainthemiddle.com/

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    1. I've only had pomegranate seeds once; it seemed like a lot of work for just a few crunchy seeds. LOL

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  15. I love salads!
    Your salad looks so healthy and yummy. 😋

    Happy Saturday, Joanne!

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  16. I love the idea of salads but always think of them as a side dish and not a full meal but the one you made looks so good! I need to convince my head that salads are a full meal.

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    1. I will eat them as a meal for lunch but not usually for dinner since I tend to think of them more as a side dish as well.

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  17. I love the look of this one. With a book like this it would be easy to make friends with salad...

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    1. Oh definitely! On top of his recipes there were endless ways to mix and match all his ingredient components.

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  18. What a cool book...I do love a good salad.

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    1. It really was neat; and I thought it was really interesting that he made all these salads at his desk at work!

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  19. wow that looks good but imagine doing all that at your desk! That's dedication.
    cheers
    sherry https://sherryspickings.blogspot.com/

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    1. I could not imagine making these at my desk every day; I'm pretty sure I'd make them at home and just pack the dressing on the side!

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  20. Replies
    1. Thank you! I'm having so much fun with this group and trying out new recipes.

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