How to Build Your Salad

Salad is one of the best ways to live a healthy lifestyle, and while many people consider it to be boring, this could not be further from the truth. Today, I’ll be going over ways to construct a salad that you will want to eat every day for the rest of your life.

As always, if you enjoy this article and want to see more, make sure you subscribe to my blog with the link below.

A good salad starts with greens, which can come in many different forms, from sturdy lettuce like romaine, endive, or red leaf to more delicate leaves like arugula or spinach, and the best part is that any leafy green you’d eat raw can work in a salad.

If you don’t feel like buying multiple different lettuces or greens, there is a fantastic alternative that takes its name from the French word for mix, mesclun. With mesclun greens, you get a variety of flavors and colors in one combination; it’s something that’s often used in restaurants as it’s convenient.

Now, once you have your greens, you need to wash them, as salad greens can take on a good deal of dirt, sand, and even tiny bugs from where they grow. Give your greens a thorough rinse under cold water to rinse as much of this off as you can.

As important as washing your greens is, it’s also important to dry them, as excess water can wilt them and cause the dressing to slide off. The best tool for this is a salad spinner, a device that takes the power of centrifugal force to pull excess water off of greens, also great for drying potatoes for French fries. If you don’t have a salad spinner, then you can lay the greens on a few layers of paper towels and shake them dry.

Ok, greens are ready; it’s time to think about other things to add to a salad, and there are dozens of ways you can go here.

Vegetables like carrots, cucumber, tomatoes, radishes, or any vegetable you’d happily eat raw are a delicious way to add depths of color, crunch, and flavor to any salad; a good rule is that you should eat the rainbow; the more colors you eat, the more nutrients you’ll get.

You also don’t have to chop them, either. A cool trick is taking a vegetable peeler and running it down the length of a carrot or zucchini to create long, thin strips of those vegetables.

Herbs are a delicious way to add flavor and aroma notes to a salad. Any soft herb like basil, parsley, cilantro, or mint will work. You could cut them thin or tear the leaves with your hands if you're feeling lazy.

Another nice thing to add to a salad is some crunch, which can come in many forms. Your favorite seed or nut, like sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, peanuts, almonds, or pecans. Croutons are also delicious; just cut stale bread into cubes, toss it with olive oil, salt, and pepper, and bake at 400 degrees for 15 minutes.

Cheese is another nice thing to add. Your favorite cheeses like feta, parmesan, blue cheese, cheddar, or any cheese you’d eat on its own can help add salty notes and richness to any salad.

Protein, a salad doesn’t just have to be vegetables and dairy. You can add cooked chicken, fish, shrimp, or tofu for that kick of protein that you need.

The possibilities when it comes to salad are endless

We might not feel the best if we ate all these raw vegetables now. Fortunately, most of the essential nutrients in raw vegetables will be easily digested with fat and acid, so it’s almost like nature meant for us to eat salads with dressing.

To make an easy vinaigrette dressing, you only need oil, such as olive oil, peanut oil, or hazelnut oil, and an acid, be it lemon or lime juice, red or white wine vinegar, and, my personal favorite, balsamic vinegar.

To make the dressing, slowly whisk three parts oil into one part acid to make an excellent emulsion, season with salt and pepper, and give it a taste. Suppose a dressing is slightly too salty or slightly too acidic. In that case, it’s good because once we put it on the salad, the water on the vegetables will dilute the dressing and make it more palatable.

Now you have your basic dressing, which can go on the salad now, or you can add other ingredients to make it even better!

You can add Dijon mustard for a thicker French-style dressing, sweeten it with sugar, honey, or agave nectar, or add your favorite spices or herbs; think outside the box and be adventurous when making your salad dressing.

Now that you have your dressing, it’s time to put it on the salad, but how much should you put on?

Do you dump the dressing onto the salad like making cereal? Not at all; the problem with doing this is you overpower the salad and end up with a pool of acidic dressing at the bottom of your bowl.

You might like a lot of dressing, but remember that with a salad, the flavor of the vegetables and greens should shine.

To appropriately dress a salad, start with enough dressing to coat the vegetables, think about putting on clothes for a hot summer day; too much will weigh you down. You can also serve the dressing on the side and have your guests dress it the way they like, and store any dressing you have left over in an air-tight container with a lid.

Also, when you’re serving a salad, don’t press the greens onto the bowl or plate, let the salad fall the way it wants to, and you’ll end up with a tall, proud salad that looks as appealing as it will taste.

Salads don’t have to be a pile of greens on a plate; they should be an opportunity to get creative and have fun. Take a green, add a few vegetables, a seed or nut, and a cheese, mix up a quick dressing, and have a quick, easy salad that can serve as a main course!