Summer is the perfect season for copious salad consumption. We eat some type of salad with nearly every dinner and frequently with lunch or breakfast, and this entrée-sized salad with lemon tahini dressing has become a staple.
No meal is easier than making an entrée salad — put a bunch of greens and vegetables on a plate with some protein and cover it with dressing! The ideal summer salad uses fresh and perfectly ripe produce from a home garden, CSA, or the Farmer’s Market. I’ve used the lemon tahini dressing on this salad with several other combinations of greens, veggies, and protein and it’s always fantastic.
Although this recipe as written is clearly not vegan, it is dairy-free and it’s simple to swap the meat for a plant-based protein. If you want this salad to be completely plant-based, try roasted chickpeas instead of the burger patty. With their crunchy texture roasted chickpeas are a fantastic salad topper and meat substitute (bonus — they can be batch cooked).
Keep in mind, you can use any combination of toppings for this salad, don’t feel obligated to include the roasted broccoli, roasted cauliflower, or sweet potato chips. These are three items I regularly batch cook and therefore have in my refrigerator. Batch cooking is my favorite strategy for easing the load of preparing healthy meals at home.
This salad also includes gut-health promoting probiotics in the sauerkraut. If you want to make your own, give my kimkraut recipe a try — it’s a great time of year to get a batch going. Alternatively, there are tons of fermented vegetables available in stores now. The red beet and red cabbage sauerkraut from Wildbrine is my personal favorite and is the one I used in this salad.
- Salad:
- 4 cups Mixed greens
- 1 cup Microgreens or pea shoots
- ½ avocado
- ½ cup sauerkraut
- 1 cup roasted broccoli or cauliflower
- 1 cup sweet potato chips
- 2, 3 oz grilled elk or grass-fed beef burgers
- Optional meat substitute: ¼ cup roasted chickpeas
- Lemon Tahini Dressing:
- 2 Tbl tahini
- 2 Tbl extra virgin olive oil
- 2 Tbl lemon juice
- ¼ c water
- 1 tsp fresh chopped chives
- fresh ground pepper
- ⅛ tsp salt
- Form the burger patties and grill to desired doneness.
- For each entree salad:
- Place 2 cups of the salad greens on a large dinner plate.
- Top the greens with ½ of the microgreens, ¼ sliced avocado, ¼ cup kimchi, ½ cup roasted broccoli or cauliflower, ½ cup sweet potato chips, and one 3oz burger.
- Drizzle generously with dressing.
- Dressing instructions:
- Place all ingredients into a small blender and blend until creamy.
- Alternative dressing instructions: place all ingredients into a bowl and whisk vigorously until creamy.