How You Can Make the Perfect Salad for Any Occasion
From vinaigrettes to Caesar, salad is a dish can either be a side dish or a main course depending on what you add to the mix.
And because there are so many ways you can make a salad, there are also just as many ways you can get it wrong. Here are a few guidelines on how you can make the right salad for any occasion:
- Wash the vegetables first. This applies whether you bought them at the wet market or at the supermarket. Running them through water and giving them a generous shake in the colander (sealed with aluminum foil) will get rid of any debris in your greens that could ruin the salad.
- Make the dressing. Dressings are surprisingly easy to prepare. For instance, homemade vinaigrette is simply made of a ratio comprised of three parts oil to one part vinegar. You can even mix in mustard and honey to taste.
Once you start doing this, you’ll find that even the dressing will taste so much better when you make it yourself.
- Season your greens! What makes restaurant salads stand out is the seasoning. Even with greens, pro chefs make it a point to introduce a sprinkling of salt and pepper to enhance the flavor.
- Mix up the said greens. Aside from the seasoning, adding a little variety in your veggies elevates the salad’s overall flavor as well. Fresh herbs also count as greens in their own right, such as cilantro, parsley, and basil, so try giving them a shot when looking for some diversity.
- Don’t fear the fat. Fat doesn’t have to be wholly unhealthy. In fact, in the right amounts, it can greatly enhance the flavor of your vegetable dish. The best part about them is that they don’t even have to come from meat – avocado, toasted nuts, and chees are all excellent flavor enhancers for your leafy greens.
- Add the dressing last. It’s easy to forget the dressing when preparing the right combination of vegetable for your salad, but it’s just as important.
While you have the choice of simply leaving on the side, you can always add it in beforehand and distribute it to coat your greens evenly. The trick to keep them from wilting is by adding them only just before you eat, and by adding only a little at a time.
The good news is that vegetables are cheap and easy in Singapore, and you can make just about any salad you want depending on the occasion.
You can even add all types of meat or dressing in your salad if you want – nobody said they had to be healthy!