Spring salads. Salad from the first greens

Nature has brought us its first gifts! Spring grasses and leaves contain many vitamins and minerals. Adding them to salads is useful, and in exceptional cases they can serve as food by themselves, restoring energy resources. Spring vitamin salads are a wonderful snack after a long, boring winter.

MAY SALAD

Compound: one bunch of lettuce and radish, 1 egg, 150 g feta, salt, vegetable oil

Peel the radishes and cut into thin slices. Cut cheese, boiled egg. Break up the salad. Mix all the ingredients well, salt and season with unrefined vegetable oil (preferably olive oil). You can sprinkle the dish with fresh herbs (parsley, dill, cilantro).

GOETHE'S FAVORITE SALAD

This spring green salad went down in history as the favorite salad of the great writer and philosopher Wolfgang Goethe, who believed that it was to this recipe that he owed his “youth” and efficiency up to 84 years.

To prepare it, you need to take two handfuls of fresh herbs (dandelion, nettle, watercress, sour sorrel, borage, parsley, green onion, dill), chop it and, adding 2 boiled chopped eggs, mix. Pour sauce from one glass of kefir, add salt, pepper and zest of 1/2 lemon to taste.

SPRING SALAD WITH SHRIMP

Boil 1 cup of rice, 300 g of shrimp. Finely chop greens (nettle, dandelion, green onion), 3 boiled eggs and mix with rice and peeled shrimp, then add salt, pepper to taste and season with mayonnaise.

DANDELION SALAD WITH BEANS

Soak 150 g of beans overnight in 750 ml of water. In the same water, cook until soft with bay leaf and vegetable broth for 30 minutes, put in a sieve and cool, remove the bay leaf. Finely chop 100 g dandelion, green onion, 3 tomatoes. Put vegetables and dandelion in a salad bowl. Make a sauce out of wine vinegar, oil, salt and pepper and dress the salad with it. Let the salad soak for 10 minutes.

GREEN TUBES WITH GARLIC

Put garlic, finely chopped greens from dandelions, nettles, parsley and dill on lettuce leaves, crushed with salt. Wrap the leaves with the filling with a tube, pour over with vinegar and leave for 2 - 3 hours to marinate. Put the salad on a dish, pour mayonnaise on top and garnish with slices of a hard-boiled egg.

SPRING RHUBUMB SALAD WITH RADISH

Cut the radish into circles, add chopped rhubarb, green onion, dill, sprinkle with sugar, salt, pepper to taste. Dress the salad with sour cream and garnish with chopped tomatoes.

Sorrel Salad with Carrots

Wash the sorrel leaves and finely chop. Grate carrots, apple and onion on a fine grater. Then mix everything and add the pickled cucumber cut into strips. Season the salad with vegetable oil, mix again, put in a salad bowl and garnish with radish slices and dill.

CHEREMSH SALAD

Finely chop the wild garlic, green onion, dill. Peel and cut a fresh cucumber into cubes, add hard-boiled and sliced eggs, finely chopped tomatoes. Then mix everything, salt and sprinkle with pepper to taste. Put the finished salad in a salad bowl with a slide and decorate with slices of eggs and cucumbers.

SPRING SALAD OF NETTLE AND SWAN LEAVES

Rinse the leaves of nettle and quinoa well and dip in boiling water for 20 minutes, put in a colander to drain the water. Then finely chop the leaves, salt, add crushed garlic. Hard boil eggs, chop finely. Mix everything, add finely chopped green onions. Dress the salad with mayonnaise mixed with horseradish.

DANDELION LEAF SALAD WITH VEGETABLES

Dandelion leaves, nettle, plantain, 2 cucumbers, 2 tomatoes finely chopped, add chopped walnut kernels. Season the salad with sour cream mixed with lemon or cranberry juice, garnish with chopped vegetables on top.

Helpful Hints

Dandelion leaves are slightly bitter, and this gives the salad an original flavor. But if you don’t like bitterness, it’s easy to get rid of it by pouring cold water over the leaves for an hour.

The leaves of dandelion, nettle and other plants are used while they are tender, not rough.

It is necessary to salt salads from greens moderately and just before serving, because greens lose juice from excess salt, become lethargic and seem to settle.

Wash, or rather rinse the first tender greens with cold water. Then these vitamin herbs will retain their beneficial qualities on the plate and will be juicy, elastic and tasty.

In the spring, we especially acutely feel the need for vitamins. And vitamins - here they are, under your feet: in the country near the house and on the forest lawns. Sorrel, spinach, dandelion - these first gifts of the spring season contain many useful trace elements, valuable nutrients and vitamins. Include these herbs in your spring menu and you won't regret it. After fresh winter food, dishes from the first greens will go “hunting”. But remember that you can collect greens in the field, in the meadow, near the river, but not in the city.

I hope that the recipes presented in my article will help you prepare an excellent dinner, which will have enough different healthy greens.

Spring dandelion leaf salad

It may seem to some that this salad is something from the realm of the exotic. And I tried it - I liked it. Maybe you will take the risk?

Then you will need:

100 gr. young dandelion leaves, 50 gr. sour cream, 18 gr. water, grated horseradish to taste, salt, 1 boiled egg or a little grated cheese.

Cooking:

1. Rinse fresh dandelion leaves well. To reduce bitterness, soak them for thirty minutes in salt water (take about 20 grams of salt per 1 liter of water). Then drain in a colander, rinse with clean water and chop.

2. Mix sour cream, water, horseradish, salt. Pour the mixture over the salad. Sprinkle finely chopped boiled egg or grated cheese on top.

Dandelion salad with nettle, goutweed and plantain

You will need:

2-3 handfuls of chopped dandelion leaves, 2-3 handfuls of chopped nettle, goutweed and plantain leaves, salt, garlic and walnuts to taste, sour cream (mayonnaise).

Cooking:

1. Sort and wash the leaves of dandelion, nettle, gout and plantain.

2. Soak dandelion leaves for 20-40 minutes in cold water, adding salt. Blanch nettle leaves for 3-4 minutes in boiling water.

3. Chop all the greens equally finely and mix. Crush the walnut kernels and garlic, add to the greens. Season with sour cream (mayonnaise), salt.

And here is the favorite of many first course:

Spring cabbage soup from nettle and sorrel

You will need:

300 gr. nettles, 200 gr. sorrel, 400 gr. potatoes, 100 gr. carrots, 80 gr. parsley (roots), 100 gr. onion, 2-4 eggs, 40 gr. sour cream, 40 gr. margarine, salt, spices (pepper, bay leaf).

Cooking:

1. Nettle greens and rinse well. Put the nettle in boiling water, boil for 10 minutes and put it on a sieve. Then grind it and stew it with margarine. Sorrel cut.

2. Rinse potatoes, peel, cut into large strips. Chop peeled carrots, parsley and onions, fry in margarine.

3. Place potatoes and fried vegetables in boiling meat broth. When about 5 minutes remain before the end of cooking, put sorrel and stewed nettles, salt, spices.

4. Hard boil eggs, cut into halves.

5. Serve ready-made cabbage soup with sour cream. Place 1-2 egg halves per serving on plates.

Another delicious first course, which, alas, is now rarely seen on our tables:

Botvinya with fish

Required:

1400 ml bread kvass, 150 gr. spinach, 150 gr. nettles, 200 gr. sorrel, 20 gr. sugar, 8 gr. salt, 80 gr. green onions, 40 gr. dill, 60 gr. horseradish, 2-3 fresh cucumbers, 400 gr. boiled fish (sturgeon, pike perch, cod).

Cooking:

1. Spinach, nettle and sorrel separately. Then wipe everything together through a sieve. Pour the resulting greens puree with kvass, add salt, sugar.

2. Pieces of boiled fish, slices of cucumbers, grated horseradish, chopped onions and dill, serve separately. You can serve with botvinia and boiled crayfish (1-2 crayfish per serving).

From spring greens, you can cook not only healing salads and delicious first courses, but also mouth-watering second courses. For example:

Dagestan dumplings with nettle

Required:

260 gr. wheat flour, 1 egg, 100 ml of warm boiled water, 300 gr. nettles, 30 gr. oils, 80 gr. onion, salt, ground pepper.

Cooking:

1. From the sifted flour, eggs, salt (3-4 gr.) And water, prepare the dough. Let it lie under a napkin for half an hour, then roll it out thinly.

2. Dip nettles in boiling water (for a couple of minutes). Then transfer to a sieve, wring out, chop. Finely chop the onion. Mix nettles with onions and sauté in oil. Salt, pepper.

3. Cut out round cakes from the dough, stuff them with nettles and cook like ordinary dumplings.

Spinach patties with rice

Required:

400 gr. spinach, 40 gr. rice, 20 gr. cheese, 20 gr. parsley, 2 eggs, salt, crackers or flour.

Use vegetable oil for frying.

Cooking:

1. Coarsely chop the prepared spinach. Sprinkle it with salt and simmer until soft. Then squeeze out excess liquid and chop finely.

2. Rice, previously washed, boil in salted water. Grate the cheese. Finely chop the parsley.

3. Combine spinach, rice, parsley, cheese, add an egg to the mass and mix. If there is not enough salt, add salt. From the finished mass, form small cutlets, dip them in the egg, bread them in crushed breadcrumbs or flour. Deep fry.

Herbs can also be added to minced meat when preparing meat cutlets. Such cutlets taste spicier than ordinary meat cutlets, besides, their nutritional value is undoubtedly higher.

Meat cutlets with nettle

Required:

500 gr. meat, 200 gr. nettles, 25 gr. garlic, 30 gr. dill, 1 egg, 25 gr. semolina, salt.

Cooking:

1. Pour boiling water over nettles and squeeze. Then, together with meat and garlic, pass through a meat grinder. Add finely chopped dill, egg, semolina, salt. Mix and shape into patties.

2. Fry them in vegetable oil or steam them.

The next two dishes will appeal to the sweet tooth.

Cottage cheese pudding with spinach

Required:

500 gr. , 250-300 gr. spinach, 45 gr. butter, 3 eggs, 50 gr. semolina, 50 gr. sugar, 200 gr. fat sour cream, 100 gr. cheese, 30 gr. crushed crackers, salt.

Cooking:

1. Put butter (30 gr.), Egg yolks, sugar, salt, semolina into the mashed cottage cheese. Mix and beat the mass with a wooden spatula.

2. Rinse spinach, dry and finely chop. Mix with curd.

3. Add the whipped egg whites last and mix gently.

4. Grease a deep frying pan inside with oil, sprinkle with breadcrumbs. Spread out the curd-spinach mixture. Coat the top with sour cream (50 gr.), Sprinkle with grated cheese, sprinkle with melted butter.

5. Put the pudding in the oven for half an hour. Serve with sour cream.

Spinach bran cookies

Required:

300 gr. wheat flour, 80 gr. wheat bran, 200 gr. spinach greens, 1 egg, 150 gr. butter, 4 gr. baking soda, 5 gr. salt.

Cooking:

1. Rinse, dry with a napkin, chop.

2. Mix flour with bran, salt, slaked soda, chopped spinach. To the resulting mass, add butter at room temperature, an egg and knead the spinach dough. Roll out into a layer no more than 1 cm thick, cut the cookies (with a knife or using molds).

3. Bake the spinach cookies in the oven, placing them on a sheet greased with oil.

From the roots of dandelion, you can make a wonderful coffee substitute, fragrant and pleasant to the taste. This drink is especially useful for children.

Dandelion coffee

For 200 ml of drink you will need 8-15 gr. root powder and 200 ml of water.

Cooking:

1. Rinse dandelion roots thoroughly, dry and roast in the oven until brown. Then grind in a coffee grinder.

2. Brew like regular coffee and drink with milk, sugar or honey.

Spring greens are rich in biologically active and useful substances, various trace elements and vitamins, which are so necessary for our body.

In early spring, green salads, spinach vegetables, as well as young garlic, onions (chives, trampoline, chives, slime, etc.), wild garlic, spicy herbs - dill, parsley, tarragon, lemon balm.

In addition to the herbs that are common and known to us, wild medicinal herbs such as quinoa, dandelion, plantain, nettle, meadow sorrel and others are also useful. They are not very popular due to the lack of useful information about them, so they are rarely eaten.

young greenery Helps us out when we need to cook delicious and healthy meals.

Sauces and dressings

Olive oil with herbs and pepper

Ingredients:

Olive oil - 1 liter,
Tarragon - 5 branches,
Parsley greens - 1 bunch,
Chives - 1 bunch,
Shoots of young garlic - 7-10 pieces,
Sweet orange pepper - 1 pc.,
Sweet yellow pepper - 1 pc.,
Sweet green pepper - 1 pc.,
Hot red pepper (small) - 1 pc.

Cooking:

Wash everything carefully and dry. Chop tarragon, young garlic shoots, parsley and chives.

For sweet peppers, remove the stalk, seeds and cut into small cubes, combine with herbs and mix. Pour all this into a clean, dry jar or bottle, put the whole hot pepper, pour olive oil, close the lid. Shake the container and leave in a dark place for several days.

Olive oil with herbs and herbs can be used for salads, meat and fish dishes.
advice from passion: You can use the oil itself without vegetables and herbs, or with all the contents. It is recommended to store such oil for no more than 3 months.

Herb Yogurt Sauce

Ingredients:

Natural yogurt - 300 g,
Dill greens (chopped) - 1 tbsp. spoon,
Tarragon greens (chopped) - 1 tbsp. spoon,
Parsley greens (chopped) - 1 tbsp. spoon,
Chives (chopped) - 1 tbsp. spoon,
Lemon juice - 1 tbsp. spoon,
Salt,
Pepper.

Cooking:

Wash, dry and chop the herbs in advance. Add prepared greens, lemon juice, salt, pepper to yogurt and mix well.

yogurt sauce goes well with fish dishes, seafood, meat, poultry and vegetable dishes.

breakfast recipes

spinach soufflé

Ingredients:

Spinach -500 g,
Chicken egg - 3 pcs.,
Dill and parsley greens - a little,
Wheat or rice flour - 2-3 tbsp. spoons,
Spices.

Cooking:

Dip spinach for 1-2 minutes in boiling water, remove, cool and squeeze. Spinach and chop greens. Leave a little dill to decorate the finished dish. Beat the eggs with salt, add the flour and beat again, then dip the prepared greens into the egg mass and mix well. Place the finished mixture in baking molds and bake in an oven preheated to 180-200 degrees for 15-20 minutes. Sprinkle the finished soufflé with chopped dill.

Nettle omelette with dandelion leaves

Ingredients:

Chicken egg - 4 pcs.,
Milk - 100 ml,
Nettle - 100 g,
Dandelion leaves - 50 g,
Plantain leaves - 3-5 pieces,
Dill and parsley greens - 1 bunch,
Salt to taste
Melted butter - a little.

Cooking:

Pour dandelion and plantain leaves with cold water for 20-30 minutes to remove bitterness, then remove and dry. Dip nettles in boiling water for 1-2 minutes, remove, dry. Grind everything together with dill and parsley. Beat eggs with salt and milk, add all the greens, mix, pour into a pan with warmed ghee, cook omelette covered on the stovetop or in the oven.

Salads

Spring green salad with walnut dressing

Healthy recipes with the first spring greens / shutterstock.com

Ingredients:

Nettle (young leaves) - 1 handful,
Dandelion (young leaves) - 2 handfuls,
Melissa (young leaves) - 5-7 pieces,
Basil (young leaves) - 3-5 pieces,
Parsley, dill - 1 bunch,
chives - a little
Walnuts - 1 handful,
Garlic - 1-2 cloves,
Lemon - 1/4 pc.,
Walnut oil (or any to taste) - 4 or more tbsp. spoons
Salt,
Pepper.

Cooking:

Rinse the leaves of nettle, basil, dandelion and lemon balm, parsley and dill, dry and chop coarsely enough, put in a bowl and mix.

For the sauce, place walnut kernels, garlic, lemon juice, freshly ground black pepper, salt, walnut oil in a blender bowl and grind everything well. Add a little more oil, if necessary, to bring the sauce to the desired consistency.

Add sauce to salad , mix and put in a salad bowl. Sprinkle the salad with finely chopped chives.

Crab salad with sorrel sauce

Ingredients:

Crabs (canned) - 250 g,
Celery (stalk) - 100 g,
Leaf lettuce - 50 g,
Cherry tomatoes - 8-12 pcs.,
Avocado - 2 pcs.,
Sorrel - 100 g,
Lemon - 0.5 pcs.,
Yogurt - 150 ml,
Hot pepper - 0.5 pcs.,
Dill greens - 1 bunch,
Spices.

Cooking:

Tear the lettuce leaves with your hands and arrange on a salad platter. Celery cut into thin rings. Peel the avocado, remove the pit and cut the flesh into small cubes, put on the lettuce leaves with celery and crabs. Crabs, if desired, can be replaced with crab sticks or shrimp.

For the sauce, rinse the sorrel, dry it, remove the stem and chop into thin strips. Leave a few leaves for the finished dish. Chop dill greens. Hot pepper without seeds cut into thin strips. Combine sorrel, dill and hot pepper with yogurt, pour over lemon juice, season with spices, mix.

Put the sauce in the middle of the dish on the salad, decorate with sorrel leaves, whole or halves of cherry tomatoes.

Soups

Soup with spicy spring greens

Healthy recipes with the first spring greens / shutterstock.com

Ingredients:

Chicken broth - 1 liter,
Onion (turnip or leek) - 1 pc.,
Chervil greens - 1 bunch,
Parsley greens - 1 bunch,
Tarragon greens - 1 bunch,
Dill greens - 1 bunch,
Sorrel - 1 bunch,
Watercress - 1 bunch,
Fatty cream - 150 ml,
Melted butter - 1-2 tbsp. spoons,
Salt,
Pepper.

Cooking:

Chop onion and sauté in melted butter until soft. Rinse all greens with cold water, dry and chop. Leave some greenery for decoration.

Dip the onion, herbs into the hot broth and cook after boiling for 3-5 minutes. Using a blender, bring the soup to a puree state, pour in the cream, add salt and pepper. Bring soup to a boil and remove from heat.

Submit soup , decorating with green leaves.

Fish soup with wild garlic

Ingredients:

Fresh fish, fillet (perch, salmon, mackerel, etc.) - 500 g,
Ramson - 300 g,
Carrot - 1 pc.,
Chives - 1 bunch,
Salt,
Pepper.

Cooking:

Grind the carrots on a grater, cut the potatoes into cubes, cut the wild garlic into pieces of 2-3 cm.

Cut the fish fillet into portions, pour cold water over it, bring to a boil and remove the foam. Put prepared potatoes, carrots and wild garlic. Boil the soup until the potatoes are ready. 5 minutes before the readiness to salt and pepper. Let the soup cool down a bit.

Serve soup with chopped onions.

Main courses

Pork with oregano

Healthy recipes with the first spring greens / shutterstock.com

Ingredients:

Pork (tenderloin, fillet) - 500 g,
Onion - 2 pcs.,
Oregano (leaves) - 2-3 tbsp. spoons,
Hot mustard - 1 tbsp. spoon,
coarse black pepper,
Salt,
Clarified butter - a little.

Cooking:

Meat if necessary, clean from films and tendons. Cut into pieces 2.5-3 cm thick. Salt and pepper. Then coat each piece with mustard, put the meat in a bowl and put it in a cool place for 30-50 minutes.

Saute chopped onion in melted butter until soft. Separately, in oil, fry the pieces of meat from 2 sides until golden brown. Put the fried meat on the onion, cover with a lid and simmer for about 10-15 minutes. Sprinkle the finished meat with oregano and leave under the lid for a while.

Serve with yoghurt sauce with herbs.

Fish rolls with herbs

Ingredients:

Fish fresh , fillet (halibut, catfish) 200-300 g each - 4 pcs.,
Nettle young - 1 bunch,
Young spinach - 2 bunches,
Garlic - 2 cloves,
Dill - 1 bunch,
Savory - a little
Vegetable oil - as needed
Lemon - 1 pc.,
Spices.

Cooking:

Salt the fish fillet, pepper and leave it in a cool place for 30 minutes.

Pour boiling water over nettles, dry and chop together with spinach. Chop the garlic, add to the spinach with nettle and mix. Put the mixture on the fish fillet, a little short of the edge, and roll up. The edges can be secured with a toothpick. Do the same with the rest of the fish fillets.

Submit fish rolls on foil greased with oil. Sprinkle with savory, part of the chopped dill, pour over with lemon juice and wrap the rolls in foil. Bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes at 180 gr. Ready rolls free from toothpicks, put on a dish and garnish with dill sprigs and lemon slices.

Bakery

Buns with swan

Form buns weighing 40-50 g and put on a baking sheet, greased with oil. Leave for 30-40 minutes, then put in an oven preheated to 180 degrees for 20-30 minutes. Serve buns with chicken broth.

Cookies with spices

Ingredients:

Flour - 500 g,
Butter - 250 g,
Sour cream - 100 g,
Cumin (seeds) - 1/2 teaspoon,
Dill (seeds) - 1/2 teaspoon,
Parsley greens - 0.5 bunch,
Sea salt medium grinding - as needed.

Cooking:

Grind the butter, add sour cream, continue to grind. Add flour, cumin, dill seeds, chopped parsley and knead well. You can replace parsley with mint leaves. When the dough is well behind the hands, put it in the refrigerator for about 1 hour. Roll out the dough into a layer, cut out cookies, sprinkle with salt and put in the oven for 10 minutes at 180-200 degrees. Submit cookie for tea or broth.

Bon appetit!

Tatiana CHEKRYGINA

Salads made from fresh vegetables look appetizing and festive. They are prepared from a variety of products with different dressings. It is important to serve the Spring salad in the spring, when the first greens and vegetables appear.

A quick and simple salad to make up for a vitamin deficiency in the body. Vegetables help speed up metabolic processes in the body, so salads are popular with lovers of a healthy diet. "Spring" salads are suitable as a side dish for meat, fish and poultry, they can be served as a cold appetizer or as an independent dish for dinner.

The range of salad ingredients is huge - fresh and boiled vegetables, poultry meat, crab sticks, canned peas and corn, cheese, any greens. You can combine the components in any way you like. As a dressing, sour cream, light mayonnaise, natural yogurt or vegetable oils are suitable. Everything is selected individually, based on taste preferences.

Classic "Spring" cabbage salad

The basis of the classic version of the salad are green vegetables. This diet salad with cabbage and cucumbers can be served as a side dish for meat dishes or eaten for dinner with.

It takes 20 minutes to prepare 4 servings.

Ingredients:

half a small white cabbage;
6 chicken eggs;
3-4 small cucumbers;
100 gr. dill or parsley;
50 gr. green onions;
50 ml olive or sunflower oil;
salt to taste.

Cooking:

Shred the cabbage.
Remove the peel from the cucumbers and cut into cubes or cubes.
Rinse the greens and blot with a towel, finely chop.
Boil hard-boiled eggs, peel and cut into large slices.
Combine all the ingredients, salt and season with vegetable oil.

Salad "Spring" with chicken breast

A salad recipe with dietary chicken meat is suitable for a festive table. Prepare a light, appetizing salad with cucumbers and chicken breast for a feast on March 8, Valentine's Day, Birthday or a bachelorette party.

2 servings of salad can be prepared in 40 minutes.

Ingredients:

100 gr. chicken breasts;
2 cucumbers;
1 medium sized tomato;
2 eggs;
1 onion;
1 tsp vinegar;
1 carrot;
1 st. l. light mayonnaise or natural yogurt without additives;
any greens;
salt to taste.

Ingredients:

500 gr. chilled crab sticks;
150 gr. hard cheese;
3 tomatoes;
2-3 tablespoons of natural yogurt or low-fat mayonnaise;
2-3 cloves of garlic;
salt and pepper to taste;
parsley or dill.

Cooking:

Cut the crab sticks into cubes or diamonds.
Cut the tomatoes using the julienne technique, into strips. Remove excess juice with a paper towel or let the tomatoes drain in a colander.
Grate cheese on a large or medium grater.
Peel the garlic and pass through a press.
Finely chop the greens.
Mix the ingredients in a salad bowl, salt and pepper to taste.
Dress the salad with low-fat mayonnaise or yogurt. Before serving, decorate the salad bowl with parsley leaves.

Salad "Spring" with ham and bell pepper

A more satisfying and high-calorie version of the spring salad is served as an appetizer on the festive table. Cook for lunch or snack.

There are subtleties in the preparation of spring salads. For example, it is better to tear greens for salad with your hands - this way vitamins are better preserved in it. Spring salads are prepared from fresh vegetables and herbs, and in order for them not to give a lot of juice, they need to be salted and seasoned immediately before serving. To prevent food from falling out of the bowl when mixing and not losing shape, use special spoons or mix the salad with long forks.

Spring salads are divided into several conditional types. Mixed salads are prepared by mixing all the ingredients and dressing with a special sauce made from vegetable oil, sour cream (less often mayonnaise). The finished salad is laid out in a chilled salad bowl, poured with the rest of the sauce and decorated to taste. Salads filled with sauce or dressing are served a little differently: the products are laid out in portioned salad bowls in layers or mixed and poured with sauce. Such spring salads are usually prepared from very tender products that easily lose their shape. Recently, this method of serving salads has been increasingly used: products and several types of sauces and dressings are laid out on separate plates - each eater chooses products and dressings to taste for himself.

In principle, a salad can be made from anything, and if you have several types of fresh vegetables and herbs at your disposal, mixing a tasty and healthy salad will not be difficult. The main thing to remember about the compatibility of products. Cucumbers, for example, go well with eggs, fresh herbs, lettuce, tomatoes, boiled potatoes, radishes, sweet and hot peppers, apples, garlic, cheese, cottage cheese, yogurt, and white or rye bread croutons. Tomatoes look great with fresh herbs, onions and green onions, all kinds of green salad, olives and black olives, fresh and baked sweet peppers, hot peppers, pasta, rice, barley, cheese, cottage cheese, sour cream. White cabbage can be mixed with fresh carrots and beets, fresh cucumbers and radishes, onions and green onions, sweet and hot peppers, fresh herbs, celery root, grapes, and citrus fruits. And these are just the main combinations, so to speak, classics, but if you turn on fantasy?

The same can be said about dressings for fresh spring salads. Spring salads can be seasoned with high-quality unrefined vegetable oils in their pure, so to speak, form - olive, corn, sunflower, linseed, cedar, amaranth, sesame, etc. And you can add a variety of ingredients to them, which will allow your salad to sparkle with new shades of taste. Here are some examples of salad dressings:

Lemon juice, black ground pepper, salt.
. Vegetable oil, vinegar (wine, fruit or balsamic), ground black pepper, salt.
. Vegetable oil, lemon juice, mustard (both regular and whole grain), ground black pepper, salt.
. Vegetable oil, crushed garlic, ground black pepper, salt.
. Mayonnaise or sour cream, crushed garlic, chopped herbs, lemon juice.
. Sour cream or mayonnaise, crushed tomatoes and garlic.

Spring is the time to pay attention to the vitamins that grow literally under our feet. We are talking about wild edible herbs. From the first warm days, young green sprouts full of living vitamins stretch from the ground. And that's all we need! And there are no costs, except for a trip to clean places. You need to collect wild herbs far from the city limits, away from the roads and railways, and preferably generally away from the "benefits" of civilization. Nettle, dandelion, plantain, burdock, wild sorrel (by the way, it is much tastier than “homemade”), mint, lemon balm, gout, wood lice (yes, that very weed!) and many other herbs are suitable for food. Collect young leaves, they are more tender and tastier.

Some herbs can be dried and used as a flavorful and healthy condiment in soups and sauces. A very interesting green dressing is obtained from nettles, dried sorrel will add sourness to your sauces, and mint or lemon balm will add flavor to compote or tea. Dried herbs should be crushed and stored in tightly sealed jars.

But back to our spring salads. the site "Culinary Eden" offers you several recipes for spring salads with both garden and wild plants. You can modify any recipe or even come up with something of your own, branded, different from others, most importantly, remember that in a good salad the number of ingredients should not exceed 4-5 - this is how the taste of food and dressing is revealed in the best way. Although, as they say, the taste and color ...

Ingredients:
500 g cabbage
1 celery stalk
4-6 cherry tomatoes
1 bunch dill or green onion
a pinch of hot red pepper.
Sauce:
1 tbsp mustard,
2 tsp fuck,
1 tsp tobasco sauce,
2 tsp red wine vinegar,
5 tbsp vegetable oil,
salt, black ground pepper - to taste.

Cooking:
Chop the cabbage, remember with salt, add thinly sliced celery, chopped herbs and a pinch of pepper. Cut cherry tomatoes in half or quarters. Combine all dressing ingredients, dress salad, toss and let stand for 1 hour.

Ingredients:
1 avocado
1 apple
1 lime
1 kiwi
2 tbsp peeled pistachios,
1 tbsp liquid honey,
fresh mint - for decoration.

Cooking:
Cut kiwi and apple into slices, avocado into cubes. Squeeze lime juice, mix with honey and dress the salad. Garnish with nuts and herbs.

Ingredients:
200 g salad greens (a mixture of lettuce leaves - lettuce, romanno, iceberg, lettuce, etc.),
2 fresh cucumbers
100 g hard cheese,
100 g natural yogurt,
2 boiled eggs
salt - to taste.

Cooking:
Cut the cucumbers into thin strips, eggs into cubes, grate the cheese on a coarse grater. Tear salad greens with your hands. Combine all ingredients and season with yogurt and salt.

Ingredients:
300 g daikon
250 g fresh carrots,
1 sour apple
1 orange
½ lemon
3 tbsp vegetable oil,
1 tsp honey,
salt - to taste.

Cooking:
Grate the daikon on a coarse grater, add salt and let stand to let the juice come out. Squeeze out the juice. Grate apple and carrot on a coarse grater, mix with daikon. Peel the orange, divide into slices, remove the films and cut into pieces. Pour the orange juice released during these manipulations into the salad. Dilute honey in lemon juice, add salt and vegetable oil. Dress up the salad.

Ingredients:
5 fresh cucumbers
20 plantain leaves,
1 onion
1 boiled egg
2 tbsp chopped green dill,
salt, ground black pepper, vinegar - to taste.

Cooking:
Cut plantain leaves, cucumbers into strips, onions and eggs into small cubes. Mix all the ingredients, salt, pepper and pour vinegar (it can be replaced with citric acid).

Ingredients:
120 g plantain leaves,
50 g nettle leaves,
1 small onion
50 g horseradish
1 egg
1-2 tbsp sour cream
salt, apple cider vinegar - to taste.

Cooking:
Leaves of plantain and nettle scalded with boiling water for 1-2 minutes, then put on a sieve. Chop the greens, onion and egg, grate the horseradish and dress the salad with sour cream mixed with vinegar and salt.

Salad of parsley and burdock

Ingredients:
120 g young burdock leaves,
½ bunch of parsley,
20 g horseradish
2-3 tbsp sour cream
salt - to taste.

Cooking:
Scald burdock leaves with boiling water and pat dry. Grind burdock, parsley, grate horseradish and season with sour cream and salt.

Ingredients:
300 g fresh nettle leaves,
200 g sorrel (preferably wild),
200 g plantain leaves,
100 g green onions,
50 g dandelion leaves,
2 boiled eggs
mayonnaise or vegetable oil, salt - to taste.

Cooking:
Soak dandelion leaves in cold water for half an hour. Grind all the greens, add chopped boiled eggs, salt and season with mayonnaise or vegetable oil to taste.

Snack Salad with Wild Herbs and Garlic. Collect young leaves of nettle, dandelion, add dill and parsley to taste and desire. Soak dandelions in cold water to remove bitterness. Chop the greens, add garlic, crushed with salt to taste and mix. Put the resulting minced meat on lettuce leaves, wrap it in tubules and put it in a bowl. Pour 6-9% vinegar for 2-3 hours. Put on a flat dish, pour over with mayonnaise or sour cream and decorate with a boiled egg cut into 4-6 pieces.

Ingredients:
200 g sorrel
1 sour apple
½ bunch of green onions
20 g parsley,
2 cloves of garlic

150 ml sour cream
dill greens, salt - to taste.

Cooking:
Grate the apples on a coarse grater, cut the radish into half circles, chop the greens, rub the garlic with salt. Mix all the ingredients, season with sour cream and sprinkle with dill.

Ingredients:
300 g green salad,
4 boiled eggs
1 cucumber
30 g green onions,
sour cream, salt - to taste.

Cooking:
Tear the salad with your hands, grate the cucumber on a coarse grater, cut the eggs into cubes, chop the green onion. Combine all the ingredients, salt to taste and season with sour cream.

Ingredients:
1 chicken fillet
3-4 cherry tomatoes
1-2 fresh cucumbers
3 stalks of green onions
2 tbsp vegetable oil,
lettuce,
parsley, salt, ground black pepper, spices - to taste.

Cooking:
Boil the chicken fillet and cool. Cut into cubes. Chop the greens, pick the salad with your hands, cut the cucumbers into half circles, cut the cherry tomatoes into 2-4 slices. Combine all the ingredients, season with a mixture of vegetable oil with salt, pepper and spices to taste.

Salad with cheese dressing

Ingredients:
1 bunch lettuce
2-3 fresh cucumbers
5-6 pcs. radish,
200 g cherry tomatoes,
5-6 green onions,
herbs, salt - to taste.
Refueling:
125 g soft cheese (possible with mold),
4-5 tbsp vegetable oil,
1-2 garlic cloves,
½ lemon (juice)
ground black pepper - to taste.

Cooking:
Tear the lettuce leaves with your hands, cut the radishes and cucumbers into half circles, cut the cherry tomatoes into 2 or 4 parts, finely chop the greens and onions. Mix all ingredients. Prepare the dressing: mash the cheese with a fork, add vegetable oil, garlic, passed through a press, juice of half a lemon and mix well (you can use a blender). Dress the salad and mix gently.

Ingredients:
½ celery root
3-4 boiled eggs
1 small onion
1 apple
1-2 fresh cucumbers
100-150 g of cheese,
½ lemon (juice)
greens - to taste,
salt.
Sauce:
3 tbsp vegetable oil,
3 tbsp mayonnaise,
3 tbsp sour cream
a pinch of sugar.

Cooking:
Grate celery root and apple on a coarse grater. Drizzle with lemon juice immediately to keep apples from browning. Cut boiled eggs and cucumbers into cubes. Chop the onion. Cheese (preferably feta or unsalted cheese) cut into cubes. Mix all ingredients carefully. Combine dressing ingredients and pour over salad.

Bon appetit!

Larisa Shuftaykina