I have no doubt that there are many questionable things about our parenting that will come up with our kids’ therapists in the years to come, but one thing I am pretty confident we did right was encouraging water as the primary beverage and serving A LOT of fruit and vegetables. When our son first went to college, the food he said he missed most was not chicken pesto pasta as expected, but fresh berries every morning, something that was not easy to get in a college cafeteria in Illinois in the winter!
Our family has a salad pretty much every night, often with another vegetable or fresh fruit as well. In Hong Kong, we are fortunate to get delicious hydroponic lettuce delivered right to our door very week by Genius Greens. Their lettuce is so fresh that we eat it either plain or with only a little bit of dressing. The family favorite when I am feeling a bit more ambitious than putting the Pizza Express House Light bottle on the table is honestly almost as easy. All you need is shaved Parmesan or Pecorino Romano, lemon juice, olive oil, salt and pepper. If you like a bit of sweetness, you can add a drop of honey, but we don’t usually.
This salad goes well with pasta, grilled meat, and pretty much anything that is Italian or mediterranean. I’m not even going to put an official recipe with this post because that is the beauty of it! Feel free to change up the cheese and mix the salad greens. (We like a mix of tender greens and arugula/rocket or spinach.) This is all you need:
– salad greens (washed and spun dry)
– Parmesan or Pecorino Romano shavings
– salt and pepper
– squeeze of lemon juice
– drizzle of olive oil
– drizzle of honey (optional)
All items are to taste. Combine all salad greens, cheese shavings, salt and pepper in a large bowl. Immediately before serving, add lemon juice, olive oil and honey (if using.) Toss with your hands or tongs and serve right away so it doesn’t get soggy.
