Easy salad with edible flowers and spicy yoghurt dressing

The time of sad, unappetizing lunch sandwiches in plastic bags is over, baby!
This beautiful salad is perfect for a delicious and healthy lunch at work, the whole year long and especially on hot Summer days. You can prepare it in advance, put it a mason jar – without the dressing – and keep it in the fridge until the morning after. You can even prepare a few servings (for example different versions with other vegetables and a hard-boiled egg, mini mozzarella balls or chunks of smoked mackerel instead of feta) so you don’t have to cook something every night for the next day. Meal prepping is so trendy, these days. As much as mason jars used to be till some time ago.
When people started to use them for food, soups, smoothies, cocktails, coffee and much more I didn’t really like them. Now that they are old news I think they are pretty cute and very, very handy. I’m not the most trend-sensitive type, I’m afraid. 🙂

A rich salad for lunch, what’s better than that? Try and take one with you to work for at least a few days a week: you will really enjoy this healthy “ritual” and, at the same time, you’ll take good care of yourself. 🙂
I also use a mini mason jar for the dressing so I’m sure it stays inside the jar and doesn’t end up all over the content of my bag.

Easy salad with edible flowers and spicy yoghurt dressing

Ingredients for 2 portions

Salad:
100 gr. broad (fava) beans, fresh or frozen
200 gr. green (string) beans
2 handfuls of carrots cut into thin matchsticks (julienne)
300 gr. broccoli florets
2 handfuls of mesclun lettuce or other baby lettuce leaves
200 gr. goat and sheep feta cheese
some edible flowers

Dressing:
6 spoons of full fat (Greek or Turkish) yoghurt
2 spoons e.v. olive oil
½ spicy chilli pepper, seeds removed and very finely chopped
salt and black pepper to taste
a small bunch of flat-leaf parsley, leaves only, finely chopped

Blanch the broad beans in boiling water with a bit of salt, then drain them and immerse them briefly in cold water to stop the cooking process and allow them to keep their beautiful green colour.
Do the same with the green beans and the broccoli florets.
Fill the mason jars with layers of broad beans, carrots, broccoli, green beans, salad leaves and crumbled cheese (the lighter, more delicate ingredients in the top layers, thus).
Garnish with some edible flowers.
Make the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together and serve it over the salad.

TIPS

You can also use pre-cooked broad beans from a jar.
The vegetables can also be steamed instead of blanched.
Edible flowers can be bought/ordered at your greengrocer. If you have an organic garden, you can also use nasturtium flowers since they’re totally edible.
For a lighter dressing you can also use regular yoghurt.