Like any good catch-all, “Clean Eating” is used to describe… a lot. Everything from salad bars to meal-replacement shakes to the almost sacrilegious act of counting the glugs of olive oil you bring to a dish.

 

At Snowe, we’re more about the virtue of simplicity than deprivation. So when our team whipped up an enviable lunch spread, inspired by springtime produce and the pleasures of easy, no-recipe cooking, we felt compelled to share our take on everyone’s favorite buzzword. Far from the mushy, white, single-color meals that define typical kiddie meals, we’re pulling together a vibrant mix high-quality whole ingredients that fall across the whole spectrum of textures, colors, and irresistible flavors.

“To me, clean eating is mostly about colorful eating,” says Ksenia Skvortsova, a loyal Snowe customer who’s also a cook, writer, and food stylist with a salivatingly beautiful Instagram feed. We’re always proud to see her creations on the clean backdrop of our dinnerware, and it’s no coincidence. “Bright colors – like the kind you find with kale or blood oranges – they look best against beautiful, crisp white dinnerware,” she explains. A woman after our own hearts.

So, shall we get started? Grab whatever’s in your fridge to recreate the flavor mash-ups we’re craving, kicking things off with a dish that’s built, literally, on bread.

 

Savory + sweet + acidity. The contrasting flavors and colors work together to create your new favorite toast. Plated simply and beautifully on our dinner plate.

 

Let's Toast

The base here isn’t just any bread, but the famous Sprezzatura from NYC’s Daily Provisions. A hearty, whole-wheat sourdough with a nice short ingredient list. Because there’s nothing new under the sun you can do to avocado toast, we made ours a tomato-bean toast, topping the grilled, sliced bread with a combination of savory (in this case, Italian Lupini beans, anchovies, and capers) and sweetness/acidity (heirloom tomatoes). Olive oil and salt round things out, and a parsley topper adds a final fresh element.

 

Ksenia points out that the avocado toast craze wasn’t built on the simple genius of scooping some avocado flesh on bread; it was about creating a perfect canvas for flair – the kind that makes you excited to dig in. “Think about all the avocado toasts we’ve seen with chili flakes, a drizzle of yogurt, or some hot honey,” she reminds us. “So often people assume healthy food has to be boring, when the truth is it’s so easy to dress things up in different ways.”

 

Another savory + sweet + acidity combo, with herbs added for good taste and looks. Our dinner bowl makes for a perfect canvas, here.

 

Get Roasted

The very notion of a roasted vegetable salad is a revelation – a heartiness you can’t get from raw veggies plus the ease of no-heat leftovers. Here, we broke up a head of cauliflower into florets, tossed them in salt and olive oil, and brushed them with pesto before roasting with almonds for a deep, savory flavor. Once out, we added the sweet (raisins), plus crisped sage, and lemon. The result is all at once smokey and bright, enough for a full meal or a radiant side dish.

 

Introducing, one of our favorite combos of sweet + bitter + salty. Presented in our salad-BFF, the dinner bowl.

  

Dress Up Your Salad

A next level salad is as simple as thinking outside the produce drawer. By introducing fruits, nuts, and cheeses – as well as atypical lettuce choices – you’re looking at a flavor explosion to take the place of everyone’s go-to “diet” food. Here, we created a base of satisfying crunch with endives, fennel, radicchio, and radishes, then layered in some salty-creamy deliciousness with ricotta salata. From there, D'anjou pears added bursts of sweetness, while pistachios doubled down on the crunch and salt. Finally, a trusty blend of mustard, fresh herbs, olive oil, good salt, and anchovies for an extra dose of salt and umami in a filling, dreamy dressing.

For a different taste, we’re big fans of Ksenia’s take on the sweet and savory salad (hers with kale and blood orange).

 

DIY your own take on the grain bowl by combining nutty + fresh + sour + sweet. We like it served in the small serving bowl, the perfect size for mixing as you go.

 

Go Grain Bowling

Ready to branch out into a slightly more involved dish? Our take on the grain bowl is built to leave you the perfect amount of satisfied. We kicked things off with nutty flavors (farro and tahini) and the crunch of fresh cut vegetables – baby cucumber and tomatoes here, but whatever’s in your fridge will do. Bring in a note of sourness (greek yogurt, in our case), plus seasoning (za'atar) and sweetness (pomegranate seeds, also a delightful burst of color). The final touch? A meaty (without being literally meaty) egg, cooked to perfection, and rested on the side to make it, officially, a meal. And a pretty "clean" one, at that.

 

 

The lesson? Names can be deceiving. “Cooking” might not even need to mean firing up the oven, just like a salad doesn’t need to be all raw – and “recipe” can mean a stream of consciousness flavor profile, rather than a printed page. Our take on clean eating is all about combining high-quality, whole foods and putting them together in contrasting, inventive meals. With that as a loose guide, you'll be looking at an end result that's healthy and satisfying, as well as an excuse to get creative in the kitchen and take pride in putting together dishes that are all your own (and won't leave you feeling over-stuffed – or bored). 

So here’s to creating simple, delicious dishes you’ll love again and again. We hope these will serve you well, but also leave you feeling empowered to put your own spicy, sweet, bitter, salty twist on things.