It’s everything you never knew you needed in the morning. It started pretty naturally, some leftover salad and roasted vegetables and the breakfast salad was born.
I quickly realized the yoghurt, lemon, olive oil combination was crucial. It made the salad both breakfasty and satisfying, it also sort of tricked me into thinking I was eating a less rich creamy dressing, which I guess I was.
Then, in 2014 I was working with Outstanding in the Field, my second tour with them. I’d gotten sick of breakfast sandwiches or the occasional breakfast burrito, and I was feeling pretty scrappy. So I bought a tiny subpar cooler and a mason jar, and I tried to sneak the leftover ice from the events every night to keep my tiny cooler cold. I kept the cooler beneath my feet as we drove across the country, and back again. I assembled breakfast salads in my jar on the sides of roads, outside of coffee shops, and at a number of pretty awesome farms. They weren’t very fancy, nothing crazy, usually a combination of sprouts, some type of leafy green, cucumbers, avocado, a heap of yoghurt, drizzle of olive oil, a big squeeze of lemon, and a generous sprinkle of crunchy salt (that part was actually quite fancy).
But let me clear, there is no wrong way to breakfast salad. You can add an egg, a soft-boiled egg will add some richness and sauce, a hard-boiled would be quick and easy too. Keep the ingredients chopped in your fridge, some boiled eggs, a tub of yoghurt, and you can assemble the salads quickly for a weekday breakfast.
Use this recipe as a guideline, an outline. Add what you have around and what you’re craving - the breakfast salad knows no bounds!
Breakfast Salad
Yield: 1 Serving, adjust as needed
In a soup bowl or a wide, shallow bowl, combine the vegetables. Make it pretty, you’ll enjoy eating it more and even if its only just for you, it should look like an inviting bowl of breakfast salad!
Place the optional seeds, cooked vegetables, or eggs on top if using.
Top with the heap of yoghurt, and drizzle the olive oil over top.
Crush the crunchy salt over the salad, make sure to get some right on the avocado. Finish with a couple generous grinds of black pepper.
1 cup thinly sliced mixed greens (kale, lettuces, radicchio)
1 handful sprouts (any type)
1 small cucumber, sliced or chopped
2-3 radishes, sliced or chopped
1/2 avocado, peeled and sliced
1 small handful herbs, picked or chopped (cilantro, mint, basil, or parsley)
1/4 cup tomatoes, cherry tomatoes cut in half or a large tomato chopped (skip if they’re out of season and mealy)
1/4 - 1/2 cup plain greek yoghurt (or goat’s milk yoghurt)
1/2 tbs olive oil
Crunchy salt (like Maldon or Jacobsen)
Black pepper
OPTIONAL
1/2 cup seasonal veg, chopped (leftover roasted squash or beets or sweet potatoes, sautéed greens, roasted mushrooms, radishes etc…)
1 tbs toasted seeds (try sunflower, sesame, pumpkin)
1 egg (boiled, poached, or fried)
