People make a big deal about salad. Ever notice that? They will go on and on about some AMAZING salad that they had in a restaurant, remembering in detail every vegetable, every accoutrement, every grain of salt on the thing, then are shocked when they throw a couple of pieces of unwashed lettuce into a bowl at home, throw some Catalina dressing on it, and don’t like it.
Come on people…man up here.
Salads are not hard to put together, but they do take preparation time. You don’t just look in your fridge and see all the ingredients perfectly matched, perfectly chopped, and already made dressing.
Unless you are a Kardashian…because everything in a Kardashian’s life seems to happen magically…
But, if like me, you are a plebeian, you need to take your time and put something really awesome together.
ANYWAY..here is how you make a great salad:
1)Choose your ingredients carefully
You want a combination of flavors and textures. I don’t really care about color, but most people do.
But here, I chose for entirely flavor and texture.
Crunchy, spicy radish
Sweet, juicy peppers
Meaty, briny olives
Verdent, snappy celery
Acidic, soft tomatoes
Salty, creamy Feta cheese
Now if that collection of adjectives doesn’t make your mouth water, you have something wrong with you, or you have not read carefully enough. That’s right, I’m making it personal. I also tossed in some cukes, onions and oregano. Some garbanzo beans would also be delish here.
2)Now you have to chop something.
Don’t know why stuff tastes better chopped. But it just does. Nothing less appetizing than a huge, fluffy pile of uncut lettuce in your mouth.
So take the time
to chop things carefully.
Take the pits out of the olives by smashing the olives with the wide side of your knife, like you were smashing garlic.
Buy the best feta you can, kids. Bad feta can be chalky, bitter and downright BAD. Good feta is a creamy, salty, sharp gift from the GAWDS.
Now you just dress it.
No salt – the feta and olives are slaty enough.
Just a wee bit of good olive oil (buy Spanish and you will never go back to any other kind)
Some vinegar (red wine is best, because it is light and tart)
And some freshly cracked pepper.
Now eat it. With a sandwich if you must (I must).
And if that doesn’t thrill you then I don’t know what does.
Even a Kardashian would be thrilled.
But you can aim so much higher than a Kardashian! Great salad. And a swell harbinger of spring. Thanks.
@Dee-haha, true story!! Thank YOU!!!
Know what I like to do? If I'm feeling productive, anyway? I like to get out a bunch of salad ingredients and a bunch of tupperware, and chop everything up and put everything in separate containers. This way, when I want to make a salad (like, say, if I want to be good and take salads to work for lunch), I just pull out all my pretty little boxes and bowls of pre-chopped, rainbow-colored beauty and line them up on the counter, salad bar style.
I feel like a rich person, or a TV chef…and I just pretend that I wasn't the one doing all the prep work earlier in the week.
I like meal-salads to be full of all sorts of flavors and colors and textures: spinach, celery, tomatoes, kidney and garbanzo beans, carrots, marinated baked tofu or roasted chicken or something, hard boiled eggs, cheese of some sort, bell peppers, etc. Sometimes I add red onion or apples or berries or nuts too. And now that I have a super-amazing Cuisinart food processor, I won't be able to use the "ugh chopping is annoying" excuse either.
As for dressing, I like to make a combo of oil + vinegar…balsamic and olive oil (with orange juice and spicy brown mustard and rosemary) or apple cider vinegar with olive oil (and a little spiced apple cider and dijon). sometimes just straight up oil and vinegar if I'm feelin' it.
I love salad. The end.
@Kim-Oh I LOVE the idea of using apple cider vinegar…I really need to do that! And I love salad tooo!!! Next time I am home, we need to have a salad party!