Salads for all seasons with Meg Yonson
Meet Meg Yonson.
Meg is a recipe developer, graphic designer and nutritionist and we’ve long admired her work. Meg’s recipes are our sort of cooking - a bit rustic, nothing too fancy and fresh, quality ingredients are a non-negotiable. They always look beautiful and pack a punch when it comes to flavour. We particularly love her outdoor cooking and camping spreads - make sure to swoon over them on her insta feed! Like her salads, Meg is just as colourful and down to earth in real life. We love her fresh approach.
Meg was the perfect person to ask how we can keep our salad game strong, over the cooler months.
Can you break down how you go about adapting your summer salads for autumn?
I love salads for their ease and ability to pack in a lot of good, healthy stuff. I love them so much I made a digital Cookbook “A Small Book of Really Good Salads”, which you can find here. But as the weather turns cooler, I make a few tweaks to my daily salads to make them a little more suitable and more palatable as I crave warmth in the cooler months.
1. Add a warm component. Eating totally raw makes me feel cold! I crave warming, nourishing foods as the weather turns cooler. This could mean steaming or roasting my broccoli instead of eating it raw and warming protein like chicken or chickpeas before adding them your salad.
2. Add warming spices. Warming spices generate subtle warmth in the body. I like to roast sweet potato in cumin, walnuts in cinnamon, cook chicken in a little ginger and oregano, or toss GOOD Oil Asian Dressing through your salad for a warm chilli hit!
3. Use seasonal veg. Swap your Summer-best veggies like cucumber, radish, tomatoes, peaches, corn, lettuce and peas for Autumn seasonal ingredients such as roasted pumpkin, shredded zucchini, avocados, spinach, watercress, oranges, shredded Brussels sprouts and purple cabbage. They’ll be tastier and better for you, being grown in season. Plus you’ll be supporting local Australian growers!
4. Add a carbohydrate. In the cooler months, we often tend to lean towards more grains and carbohydrates for comfort and warmth. Pick wholegrains and nutritious carbohydrates sources like buckwheat, quinoa, roasted sweet potato or pumpkin, instead of skimping out at your meals and then craving poor high-carb choices later.
5. Add broth! Yep, I’ll simmer my chickpeas in broth and a pinch of salt before adding to a salad. Or I’ll make a salad dressing: just add about ¼ cup GOOD BONES Chicken Broth to a jar with 2 tablespoons of apple cider vinegar, 1 tablespoon of Dijon mustard, 1 teaspoon of honey and a good pinch of sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Shake the jar to combine the dressing and pour over the salad.