I’ve been riding the healthy-eating train for years, but salads never quite made it on board. Sure, I enjoy a couple of cucumber slices on the side, but making a full salad always seemed like more effort than it’s worth.

Then, one fine day, a slew of nutritional advice from several experts got me to change my ways. I had to address a deficiency in calcium, add more complex carbs and protein to my dinners, and try out a new superfood in the form of home-grown broccoli sprouts.

The salad that emerged from these recommendations turned out to be a real treat, and I have no problems motivating myself to make it time and time again. Thus, I deemed it worthy of its very own article.

Ingredients

My miracle-working salad is a complete meal offering a balanced mix of macro and micronutrients. Here’s a list of everything it contains:

• A big handful of shredded kale
• Half a handful of broccoli sprouts
• Five sliced cherry tomatoes
• One medium-sized avocado
• 40 g of crushed whole-grain crackers
• 80 g of canned chickpeas
• 40 g of feta cheese (I use a local garlic-flavored brand)
• A dash of seeds (I use a mix of chia, flax, and hemp)
• Olive oil, salt, and pepper to taste

Instructions

It’s not much more complicated than just tossing everything into a bowl, but there are a couple of subtleties.

1. Put the shredded kale in a bowl and mix in the broccoli sprouts. Dispersing the sprouts evenly is a skill by itself and needs a bit of practice.
2. Slice the cherry tomatoes in quarters and add to the bowl.
3. Cube the avocado and add it on top.
4. Crush the crackers over the bowl for a bit of crunch. You could also use croutons, but I like my Scandinavian “knekkebrød.”
5. Add the chickpeas, feta cheese, and seeds.
6. Use some of the oil from the feta cheese and add olive oil if needed.
7. Season with salt and pepper to taste.

The whole process takes about ten minutes. Granted, this is more than nothing, but this salad is a meal by itself, so you don’t need to bother with making anything else.

Pro Tips

Three of the ingredients require some smart management to maximize convenience and taste. Let’s take a look.

Broccoli sprouts

It took me a while to work up the courage to get started in home sprouting. But once I got going, it was a breeze.

Broccoli seeds and sprouting kits are available cheaply from many online health food stores. Once your kit arrives, all you need to do is to put in the seeds and rinse with water every morning and evening. If you have a solid morning and evening routine, this is virtually no extra effort.

The sprouting cycle conveniently spans one week, and the sprouts can last long enough in the fridge (in an airtight plastic container) that you always have some available.

Avocado

Always having a ripe and unblemished avocado at hand is something of an art form. It all starts with buying your avocados when they are still rock hard to ensure you don’t get any of those nasty brown bruises. Then, let them ripen at room temperature. Once they become slightly soft, move them to the fridge where they will last for up to one full week.

If you’re a big avo fan like me, you’ll want to make sure you always have a solid supply of ripening avocadoes in the fruit bowl and ripe avocados in the fridge. Once you get into the avo-ripening rhythm, you’ll never be lacking a good avocado again.

Seeds

A container with premixed seeds is essential for maximum convenience. As explained in a previous breakfast article, I buy my seeds in bulk to make large-scale seed mixes, so my seed mix is always available.

But this only works for a large seed consumer. If you don’t use seeds in other meals, the best is to look for a packet of premixed seeds or buy some smaller packets of different seeds to mix in a convenient container.

Enjoy!

I’ll sure be enjoying this salad for years to come. Perhaps you’ll be too!