Mr. FBBQ and I were recently in Boston and I discovered Sweetgreen, an amazing option for those of us who do not eat fast food. I’m always looking for healthy food on the go and Sweetgreen was perfect! I liked it so much, I decided to try to recreate some of their dishes at home! Sweetgreen, this post is dedicated to you!
You can really have fun with these recipes. Sweetgreen had meat options as well for you carnivores out there. I opted for the tofu. To start with, I used kale and baby spinach as a base. I also added some cabbage in there. As I do with most of my salads, I added flaxseed, pepitas, and sunflower seeds. I’ve also recently discovered the amazing health benefits of hemp seeds so those went in as well.
For my first Sweetgreen recreation I added broccoli, tomatoes, cucumbers, and almonds. I topped that with some cooked farro, avocado, carrots, chickpeas, and eggs. I struggle with eggs. I don’t often eat them, however I recently read an article on how they can potentially help with some hormonal issues. In addition to that, they are a great source of protein. I decided I would add them to my diet when I could. I do have some parameters when it comes to purchasing eggs. I will only use eggs that come from our local farmer’s market or (I recently discovered) a co-worker gets them fresh from her friend’s farm. The regulations on labeling store-bought eggs are quite arbitrary and “cage free” and “free range” do not necessarily mean the chickens are actually cage free or free range. Then there are hormones. No thank you.
Another thing I’ve been trying to pay attention to is added sugar in things I buy. It’s crazy how many things have unnecessary added sugar! In addition to this, I try not to buy things with added gums (such as xanthan gum and guar gum). This is another difficult parameter to meet! There are gums in everything! I did find a salad dressing (Dress It Up, pictured below) that didn’t have a lot of added sugar and had zero gums. It was really delicious too!
My second Sweetgreen dish used a rice/barley/grain mix, tofu, a sweet potato, mushrooms, and an apple!
I started with a base of kale and cabbage and added an apple.
Cook the rice and let it cool.
I cooked the mushrooms and an onion in a pan with some water. I added the remainder of the chickpeas from salad # 1 to the mix as well.
I steamed the sweet potato and added that to the base, along with an avocado.
Add the mushroom/onion/chickpea mix and the rice mix to the salad. I topped this with hemp seeds.
Cook the tofu and add that to the top of the dish.
That’s it for salad #2! I really hope you enjoy these and find some combinations of your own. Lastly, I was wishing we had a Sweetgreen near us and just the other day I saw that one is being built not far from our house! I am so excited!! If you have a Sweetgreen near you, go check it out! Thanks, Sweetgreen!!!!