The following salad meals were developed for use in
hospitals and care homes to improve variety for soft diet menus. The recipes
and ideas presented meet with modified texture standards for management of
Dysphagia, as published in 2007, that used a consensus approach with Speech
Pathologists and Dietitians. However, this does not preclude checking with the
onsite Speech Pathologist and Dietitian to ensure suitability for the
population at the hospital or care home.
The soft garden salad presented here doubles as the salad
item for some of the main salads as well as a soft side salad item offered with
hot meals.
SOFT DIET GARDEN SALAD
Ingredients Serves
4
60g thin sliced gherkins
160g tomatoes (choose very ripe ones)
140g tinned beetroot
Method
- Wash tomatoes, remove skin and cut into small wedges or slices (1.5cm).
- Arrange beetroot slices or small wedges or diced beetroot on small plate with tomatoes and gherkin for a side salad.
Alternatively
bottled asparagus spears with tougher ends removed can be used.
POTATO SALAD
Ingredients Serves
4
300g potatoes peeled
½ tsp dried parsley
40g low fat mayonnaise
Method
- Dice potatoes to 1 cm.
- Steam until soft and cool.
- Mix gently with dressing and herbs.
Alternatively other
steamed or lightly fried or roasted vegetable can be used such as sweet potato,
skinned capsicum, swede or turnip as well as green peas that add colour. Other
dressings may also be suitable. The essential result must be soft enough to cut
with the edge of a fork with no hard edges.
SOFT MUSHROOM SALAD
Ingredients Serves
4
60g sliced onion
140g mushrooms
80g thin sliced ham
25g low fat mayonnaise
25g plain yoghurt
½ tsp dried parsley
Method
- Slice cleaned mushrooms into pieces <1.5cm and remove stalks.
- Chop onion into pieces <1.5 cm.
- Cut ham into julienne slices.
- Steam mushroom and onion until soft. Alternatively gently fry in a small amount of oil until soft.
- Cool.
- Mix mayonnaise and yoghurt with parsley and gently fold into onion, mushroom and ham.
SOFT BEAN AND ONION SALAD
Ingredients Serves
4
300g four bean mix
40g sliced onions
40g cucumber
½ tsp mixed herbs
40g vinaigrette
Method
- Dice onions and steam until soft.
- Grate cucumber.
- Mix all ingredients together with dressing and chill.
Alternatively the
mixture can be lightly chopped in a food processor and served as a scoop (see
photo). This provides an adhesive mixture sometimes more suitable for a soft
diet but can also meet standards for a minced and moist diet.
Super Foods for Small Appetites* has a range of recipes and information to use when creating salad menus such as Potted Beef, Frittata, Chicken and Prawn Mousselines. The vegetarian and fishy dips recipes can also be used.
Happy salad menu creation
If you found these recipes useful, and want to find out more about novel recipes for Dysphagia Diets, try one my books - either A Kitchen Manual for Preparation of Modified Texture Diets (2nd Edition) or Super Foods for Small Appetites - Home Based Modified Texture Diets
