What's your formula for building the best salad?
Building a salad can be a art. Each person creates his or her own just-right-mix of nutrient-packed & taste-bud-popping ingredients. I see 4 components: start with good greens, add a protein source, throw in lots of color & drizzle on the dressing. I go for a mixture of tender lettuce, black beans, avocado, mango & sunflower seeds with a vinaigrette. What are the makin's for your best green salad?
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14 Comments:
i had a tasty one last night for dinner. endive, avocado, walnuts, pepperoni bits, cherry tomatoes and simple dressing - safflower oil & white wine vinegar and sprinkle of s & p.
ceforrester at 8:45AM on 10/18/07
I had a good one last night: warm goat cheese (dipped in egg, then panko & pan-fried) with spiced pecans and dried cranberries over red-leaf lettuce. Quick dressing: Trader Joe's Muscat Orange Vinegar & Olive Oil.
SSMom at 9:21AM on 10/18/07
I still am in awe of the spinach salad. Since the first time I ever dug into one when I was but a young thing I have been a spinach salad devotee.
Fresh young spinach leaves, red onion, mushrooms, tomatoes, bacon, hard boiled egg, shredded cheese and dressing du jour. I can never eat enough of it.
This salad is lovely to make and I recommend a clear glass bowl for serving. I put the dressing on the side in a gravy boat and it is food porn.
JerzeeTomato at 12:06PM on 10/18/07
I probably eat abou 6 salads a week( Some I eat out). The other night I made a tricolor (arugula, radicchio, endive), with pine nuts, parmesian cheese in a balsamic dressing, and it was delicious. I find as long as I have leafy greens in the house, I can invent a salad. I take leftover meats or veggies or pasta, and make new combos all the time. Good salad combinations are about balancing the flavors you put into them.
Mich23 at 2:57PM on 10/18/07
Dijon vinaigrette (homemade) or pomegranate molasses with olive oil, romaine lettuce, feta, chickpeas, beets, orange-flavored dried cranberries, toasted pine nuts, pita chips.
emily20008 at 10:45PM on 10/18/07
Arugula, roasted beets (preferably a variety of colors), pecorino romano or ricotta salata, and lemon vinaigrettte. Yummy!
ChristineB at 12:03AM on 10/19/07
one of my favorites is butter lettuce with some ground walnuts and a walnut oil and lemon vinaigrette.
then again, like this evening,I simply opened the vegetable keeper and took some of everything, Chicken breast, romaine, tomato, scallions, celery, grated carrot, blanched snow peas, some grapes. topped with a healthy chunk of blue cheese and a light vinaigrette with ranch dressing granules for seasoning.
made some orange muffins to go with.....
suegsf at 3:13AM on 10/19/07
Thanks for sharing salad ideas---I see some ingredients that I have forgotten about & will plan for my upcoming salads--like the snow peas, beets & will try to locate the pomegranate molasses :)
I think salad is best when served on a chilled plate...crusty bread or muffins along with.
JEP at 5:43AM on 10/19/07
I like to start with good spinach or mixed greens, then add something for bite - usually green or red onions - then, I mix it up.
I like something sweet, a lot of the times it is currants or dried raspberries or cherries.
Then I add something crunchy, like almonds, pine nuts or croutons.
For tang I usually add feta, or goat cheese if I have it on hand.
My favorite (store-bought) dressings usually round it out. I like Annie's Shiitake Mushroom & Sesame Vinaigrette, Raspberry Vinaigrette, or their Green Goddess Dressing.
lo82070 at 11:10AM on 10/19/07
My favoritie is greens (spinach is possiblemy favorite), then cheese (blue, goat, feta, asiago, pecorino), something sweet (dried cranberries or raisins, pears, apples), and nuts (toasted walnuts/pecans/pine nuts). Sometimes I add mix and match the above with olives, bacon, chicken, tomatoes, avocados, mushrooms. I always make the same dressing: dijon mustard, honey, cider vinegar, onion powder, sometimes a splash of soy sauce and a bit of hot sauce. What are people's favorite dressings and how do you make it??
cristi at 3:40PM on 10/19/07
Color and textures makes the salad for me. As long as it's colorful, I feel I've made a great salad.
The salad that got me into eating salads, was a spinach salad with blue cheese crumbles, red onion slices, tart cherry tomatoes, fresh-off-the-grill chicken breast - sliced, topped with walnuts and warmed balsamic vinaigrette. I was turned off when this restaurant (doesn't exist anymore...humm...) used candied walnuts and cold chicken and dressing. There was something about the textures and the temperatures that made it worth it.
plasticspoontraveller at 4:14PM on 10/19/07
My perfect salad:
Spring mix leaves (deep greens and purples - I'm blanking on the actual name), pears, cranberries, halved tiny cherry tomatoes, some feta or goat cheese, and walnuts. I also enjoy mandarin oranges but maybe not in this combination.
For the dressing, some balsamic vinaigrette or something light and sweet. I don't like creamy opaque dressings, but most translucents are pretty good.
Hillary
Chew on That
Chew on That at 5:20PM on 10/19/07
Hillary - I add some, not much, fig balsamic from the Napa Valley to a good oil and some fresh lemon juice. makes a light dressing on mixed greens. Cracked pepper on top.
suegsf at 11:30AM on 10/20/07
XH used to say that I didn't put enough "stuff" in my salad. I grew up in an Italian household and salad meant lettuce, tomatoes, red onion, olive oil, red wine vinegar, salt and pepper. It was only after I left my childhood home did I venture into avocado and asparagus, etc.
Since then, my tastes have migrated to garlic-fortified emulsified vinaigrettes, made fresh each meal. I stil love tomatoes, lettuce (anything but iceberg) and red onions. I find that salads as an "accompaniment" still resemble that salad of my youth while "meal" salads with definitely have more "stuff" in them. I would probably opt to do a Nicoise or Thai or other kind of composed meal salad, vs. put a bunch of stuff in a salad that will be a component of a much more complex meal.
chiff0nade at 12:13PM on 10/20/07