Kitchen

[JustJules]

I love a fresh green salad, making one right now for lunch, and I'm always interested when invited to a person's house for lunch or dinner how they make their salad. It seems everyone does it a little bit different. Some throw in everything but the kitchen sink while others take a more minimalist approach. I suppose I make mine somewhere in between. Typically I use romaine lettuce (rarely use iceberg) and add some baby spinach or red leaf lettuce for variety. I like butter lettuce too. I add some chopped green onion, cucumber, tomato, and usually add some sliced mushrooms, although I serve those on the side if I'm preparing a salad for dinner guests since not everyone likes mushrooms. Sometimes I'll add some celery or carrot slices, or some zucchini if I have it on hand, but that's about it. I know some people add sliced egg, croutons and lots of veggies. I do love a nice chef salad for supper occasionally, especially on a hot summer night. So how do you make your salad? Do you make a Caesar salad or just basic mixed greens? Do you dress your salad or leave it plain and let people put their own dressing on it? Just curious.....

[gazelle77]

I like an interesting salad. Lots of heathy ingredients. Start with cut up iceberg, add spinach, kale, carrot, celery, broccoli and apple. I add raw walnuts, pumpkin seeds, almonds, I add chia seeds, ground flax seed' lecithin granules, and brewers yeast. Top it with my favorite dressing. I love to add Greek feta cheese also.

[Harpa]

I never go to any trouble, except when serving salad for company.

Today I simply had leaf lettuce that I tore, a little bit of roasted tomatoes and a grilled chicken tender. And I do enjoy a sprinkle of Wegman's Mighty Caesar.

Other times it's spinach, hard cooked egg, grated sharp Cheddar w/ Thousand Island.

For company, it depends on what meal we're having, and I'll choose a few accompanying raw vegetables, maybe a nut (loved sugared & spiced pecans in a salad). I always serve dressing on the side.

I don't know if this is/was anyone's custom, but when I was growing up, we always had the salad course last. Endive or even spring dandelion greens or some kind of lettuce. Always w/ oil & vinegar.

[DiAnne]

I make my salad different everyday. I usually use baby lettuce mix and sometimes romaine. Last nights salad had artichoke hearts, avocado, heirloom tomatoes, chopped peppadew with a sherry vinaigrette. Tonight the salad will have baby lettuce, dried cherries, avocado, feta cheese or goat cheese, balsamic/maple syrup dressing with toasted slivered almond on top.

I make my dressing to go with the ingredients in the salad.

[terrier3]

I make different salads depending on what else I am serving.

If it's something rich like beef, I might have a simple salad of butter lettuce with a French vinaigrette and some snipped herbs.

We like to use fresh homegown tomatoes, greens and LOTS of basil leaves (almost like another green)... feta and a Greek vinaigrette.

Cobb salad makes a great main course...I like to snip in fresh dill when we are having chicken or fish.

I like to create salads differently every day.

[gardensla]

I usually bring lunch to work every day and it's typically a big salad. Mine is always a tumble of what's in the cupboard and fridge. Starts with a mountain of mesclun or arugula topped with matchsticks of celery, fennel, carrots, roasted beets, apples, etc. On top of that I toss some bits of cheese, or a spoonful or two of humus, sometimes a bit of fish or a chopped up cooked veggie burger. Sometimes I throw in some nuts or some craisins. I alway mixed up olive oil and balsamic vinegar with some herbs. The entire thing is super filling and fun to eat!

[JustJules]

Everyone's salads sound creative and delicious. There aren't many salads or ingredients I don't like.

Harpa it isn't unusual to serve the salad course last, it's typically a European thing. My mom was English and she would often eat her salad after dinner. I've done both depending on what the main meal was.

[Sooner]

I buy the three heads of Organic Romaine in a bag, wash, dry and chop across, finely shave lots of red bell pepper, add a bunch of grated carrot, any herbs I have (we grow a lot of them), MAYBE some finely diced onion or not, throw in some small tomatoes, and that's about it for basic make it every week salad. I always make my own dressing--basic olive oil and sherry vinegar (or balsamic), dijon justard, maybe some honey or a tsp of sugar, garlic, salt and pepper and shake. I like a really tart dressing. Sometimes I use lemon juice too!

I get fancy for company, but the above is my basic one. Oh, sometimes I put celery in it too.

[LooPY]

On 10/3/2014 Harpa said:

I don't know if this is/was anyone's custom, but when I was growing up, we always had the salad course last. Endive or even spring dandelion greens or some kind of lettuce. Always w/ oil & vinegar.

We always had our salad course last, too! Jules is right--that's a European custom, and to this day I always eat my salad last!

I like to use Romaine hearts and/or red leaf lettuce, red, orange and yellow peppers, English cucumber, and tomatoes, sometimes with a sprinkling of cheese or shredded carrot, jarred 3 bean salad, and anything else that strikes my fancy. It's every man for himself as far as salad dressings--each to his own taste!

[SANNA]

Salad at the end of the meal is actually Italian tradition. All other countries I visited and lived in serve it just like we do. When I have guests I serve it with other appetizers. My favorite salads are dimple. 1. Mixed greens or Romaine, Kirby cucumbers , Jersey tomatoes, onions, sweet bell peppers, little salt,pepper and virgin olive oil. 2. Kirby cucumbers ,scallions , radishes,curly lettuce, dill, little salt and souercream for dressing. This last one is so refreshing, guests love it.