Suggested Soft Diet Salad Recipes

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

1. Wash tomatoes, remove skin and cut into small wedges or slices (1.5cm).
2. 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

1.   Dice potatoes to 1 cm.
2. Steam until soft and cool.
3. 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

1. Slice cleaned mushrooms into pieces <1.5cm and remove stalks.
2. Chop onion into pieces <1.5 cm.
3. Cut ham into julienne slices.
4. Steam mushroom and onion until soft. Alternatively gently fry in a small amount of oil until soft.
5. Cool.
6. 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

1.  Drain beans
2. Dice onions and steam until soft.
3. Grate cucumber.
4. 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