Salad Topped Main Course & Vegetables By Color

Salad-Topped Main Course & Vegetables By Color

March 11, 2014 at 8:44 am · Filed under Meat & Poultry, Recipes, Tip Of The Day, Vegetables-Salads-Herbs

Here’s an easy way to get everyone to eat a few more veggies: Top main courses with a small salad.

Fried, grilled, roasted and sautéed proteins are all candidates to be topped with an alluring crown of vegetables and herbs—not a dinner salad or dressed lettuce, but something that looks great. Dress the salad very lightly with olive oil or vinaigrette.

The “salad topping” doesn’t preclude your ability to serve the side salad of your choice.

A recipe for Chicken Breasts With Broccoli Rabe & Mozzarella is below.

SALAD TOPPERS

Aim to mix at least three bright colors and ideally four: green plus orange, red or yellow. Different shades of green don’t count as different colors. We’ve also included green salad-friendly fruits.

THE GREEN GROUP

Asparagus

Avocado

Broccoli (including rabe and rapini)

Cucumber

Edamame

Green apple

Green beans

Green bell pepper

Green grapes

Green olives

Green onion tops

Green peas

Herbs (basil, dill, parsley, etc.)

Lettuces (everything from arugula to watercress)

Microgreens

Pickles/gherkins

Sprouts

Sugar snap peas, snow peas

Zucchini

THE ORANGE GROUP

Cantaloupe

Carrots

Dried apricots

Kumquats

Mango

Orange bell pepper

Orange cherry or heirloom tomatoes

Orange or mandarin segments

Red lentils

THE RED GROUP

Baby radish

Dried cherries or cranberries

Pomegranate arils

Radicchio or red endive

Raspberries or strawberries

Red apple

Red bell pepper

Red cabbage

Red leaf lettuce

Red grapes

Red tomatoes

Watermelon

THE PURPLE/BLUE GROUP

Berries: blackberries, blueberries, boysenberries

Eggplant (grilled)

Fruits: figs, grapes, plums

Purple potato slice

Purple cabbage

Specialty varieties: purple bell peppers, carrots, cauliflower, corn, potatoes, string beans, plus forbidden rice (black rice)

THE YELLOW GROUP

Chickpeas

Corn

Pineapple

Yellow bell pepper

Yellow lentils

Yellow tomatoes

THE WHITE GROUP

Cauliflower

Deviled egg or boiled quail egg

Enoki mushrooms

Parsnips and turnips

Shredded daikon

White baby radish

White bean Salad (Cannellini, Navy, Great Northern)

Thanks to Wendy Thorpe Copley, author of one of our favorite new books, Everyday Bento, for organizing lists of fruits and veggies by color. We’ll be reviewing her book shortly.

RECIPE: CHICKEN CUTLETS WITH BROCCOLI RABE & MOZZARELLA

This dish may look familiar: Italian restaurants frequently top cutlets with a bit of red and green.

You can prepare this dish in just 15 minutes, plus 30 minutes of cooking time.

You can cut calories and cholesterol by eliminating the mozzarella.

Ingredients For 4 Servings

2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

1 garlic clove, crushed

4 boneless, skinless chicken cutlets, slightly pounded

Salt and pepper

2 large eggs, slightly beaten

1 cup Italian-style breadcrumbs

Salt and pepper

1/2 pound mozzarella, thinly sliced

1 bunch broccoli rabe, steamed or sautéed

2 ounces sundried tomato slivers

Preparation

1. PREHEAT oven to 350°F. Heat olive oil in a large skillet. Sauté garlic until golden, then discard.

2. SPRINKLE chicken breasts with salt and pepper on each side. Dip chicken into beaten egg and then coat with breadcrumbs. Place chicken in skillet and cook until brown on both sides, about 5 minutes.

3. PLACE cutlets in a baking dish sprayed with cooking spray or greased with oil. Bake the cutlets for 10 minutes, and top them with mozzarella, rabe, and tomato slivers. Continue baking until cooked through, another 10 to minutes or so.

3. ARRANGE chicken on four plates and top with mozzarella and broccoli rabe. Garnish with tomato slivers and serve.

[1] Pan-sautéed catfish topped with a parsley and tomato salad (photo courtesy Whole Foods Market.