3 Easy Healthy Salad Recipes

Hey guys, it's Dani, and today I'm here with a new episode of Clean and Green with Dani, and I will be covering salads today. I'm going to show you how to make three different salads using just five ingredients, and I'm going to also show you my go-to salad dressing that I will tweak ever so slightly for each salad. Now remember, if you try any of these recipes or you're making any clean and delicious salads of your own, snap a picture and tag me on Instagram and on Facebook using the hashtag cleanandgreenwithdani so we can all stay connected throughout the month. Now let us get started. Now the first salad I'm making is my kale crunch salad. Personally, I love using kale as the base of a salad because the texture is very hearty and it's super nutrient dense, so it makes for a very satisfying salad. In my bowl, I have four cups of thinly sliced kale, and to that I'm going to add two cups of thinly sliced red cabbage, super crunchy, two cups of chopped up carrots, then I have one green apple, nice and bright and tart that I chopped up, in you go, and then one chopped up avocado, which is going to add a nice creamy rich texture and taste. Now I'm just going to set this aside and make the dressing, which is super simple. It's basically just a slight variation of my go-to vinaigrette. I'm going to combine two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a quarter cup of apple cider vinegar, which is nice and tart and bright, then I have one clove of crushed garlic, and just a teaspoon of honey. It's going to round out the flavor in the dressing. Give it a pinch of salt, a pinch of black pepper, and then I'll just gently whisk this all together. Now my go-to formula with salad dressing is I do one part oil to two parts vinegar, so that's why I've got the two tablespoons of olive oil and four tablespoons, which is a quarter cup, of the vinegar. Okay, once I've got that all whisked together like I do here, I'm just going to drizzle this over my salad and then I like to use a pair of tongs like this and just gently toss this until all the ingredients are incorporated and everything has a nice light coating of that dressing. Okay, now this salad holds up really great because it's nice and hearty, so you have two choices. You can either just pop a lid on this, leave it in the fridge, and then snack on it all week long, or do what I like to do and make individual servings. You could do that in a mason jar, make a salad jar, or you could do in any airtight container you have, and you'll have yourself some clean and delicious grab-and-go salads all during the week. Okay, next up I have my chunky Greek salad. Now you don't always need lettuce to create a veggie-packed salad, and I'm going to show you why. In this salad for our base, I'm using four cups of chopped up cucumber. Now personally, I love using those little Persian cucumbers because they're super crunchy. Then to that, I'm going to add two cups of chopped up baby tomatoes, one cup of garbanzo beans. That's going to add a good bit of protein. Then I've got a quarter cup of diced red onion, and a half a cup of halved kalamata olives, and those olives add a nice, rich, buttery, creamy texture to the salad without needing to use any dairy. Okay, I'm going to set that aside and make my dressing. Now this dressing is the same base recipe. I'm just going to tweak the acid and the flavors just a little bit. So this time I'm starting with one tablespoon plus two teaspoons of extra virgin olive oil. Then I have three tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. The balsamic is a little bit sweeter than a red wine vinegar. One teaspoon of dried oregano, one clove of crushed garlic, a fat pinch of salt, a fat pinch of pepper, and then again I'm just going to whisk that till everything is well incorporated and drizzle this right over my salad. Now this salad is great as is, but if I want to bulk it up, I will put it on top of a bed of baby spinach or some crunchy romaine. Another thing I like to do is serve it as a side dish to some grilled chicken or maybe like a kebab in the summertime. Lots of different options, but with all that being said, same deal as the last salad. Pop a lid on this and store it in the fridge as is, or if you want a salad on the go that you can bring to work or have for lunch, put it into individual containers and you've got your salad that you can grab and go. My third and final salad is a quinoa and black bean salad. Now quinoa is great because remember, although it's grouped with the grains, it is technically a seed. So it's both gluten-free and high in protein, which makes it a really nice base for a salad. So all I'm going to do is combine two cups of cooked quinoa, one chopped bell pepper, I'm using a red pepper here, nice and sweet, a third of a cup of diced up scallions, one cup of black beans, which is going to add even more protein to the salad, and then I have one chopped up avocado. I'm going to set that aside and make my dressing. So for this dressing, I'm going to combine two tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, a quarter cup of fresh squeezed lime juice, so that's the acid, it's nice and bright and fresh, one clove of crushed garlic, then I have just an eighth of a teaspoon of ground cumin. It's going to give a nice smoky, warm flavor. Fat pinch of salt, some black pepper, and then I'm just going to whisk this together and drizzle it right on top of the salad, and then we'll toss that all together. Mmm. Mmm. Mmm. It's like a flavor explosion. So much good stuff going here. Little crunch from the scallion, creamy avocado, bright dressing with that smoky undertone. You guys are going to love this one. You gotta try it. So there you guys have it. Three very simple, extremely delicious salads, all using just five ingredients. These are all amazing options if you're cleansing or detoxing, or if you're just trying to keep things clean and delicious. Make them on the weekend, pop them in the fridge, you'll have healthy, on-the-go lunches that you can turn to all week long. So now I am curious if you're going to try any of these salads, which one do you think you would try first? Which one do you like the best? Come on down in the comments and let me know. And don't forget, if you try anything or you're making anything clean and delicious yourself, take a picture and tag me on Instagram and on Facebook using the hashtag cleanandgreenwithdanny so we can all stay connected all throughout the month. Thanks so much for watching, guys. I'll see you next time with some more clean and deliciousness. Cheers. And today I am here. Here we go. And today I am here with a new series, a new episode, a new video. So now from here, boom, here we go. It's like a trick, it's a trick lid. Had two in it. Here we go. Three, two. So now I am curious. I lost my voice right there.