How To Cut Lettuce Romaine
Romaine Lettuce:
Youll want to use romaine for a side salad. Ive used other greens like, mixed greens, leaf lettuce and head lettuce and although theyll do in a pinch, those types of lettuce dont measure up to romaine. However, whats even better than just romaine is a combination of TWO different kinds of greens
Using Spinach Too
Using fresh spinach along with romaine is definitely optional but it REALLY adds a delicious texture to the salad.
Even as someone whos not a huge fan of spinach salads, I always try to incorporate a small handful of chopped spinach in to this salad now because it makes a wonderful difference.
How to Cut Romaine Lettuce
The key is chopping the lettuce into small pieces and removing the white part because it can overpower and cause your salad to taste bitter.
Have you ever eaten a chopped salad at a restaurant and found the texture and flavor to be so much more amazing than a head-lettuce or romaine salad with all of the white crunchy pieces like you typically find on a salad bar?
This is why its so good. The lettuce is easier to eat, less bitter and so much more enjoyable.
Best Knife for Chopping Lettuce
To chop, Im OBSESSED with my favorite Wusthof Santoku knife. Not just for salad, but for everything when chopping or cutting. Pricier? Yes. But soooo worth it. My uncle convinced me to get one, one day, and hes now my favorite uncle.
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Why Are Restaurant Salads So Good
Restaurant salads are delicious for a number of reasons, the first of which you probably already know: they’re likely more fattening than the ones you make at home. Heaped with crunchy fried chicken, seductive cheese crumbles, buttery croutons, and more creamy or oily dressing than you’d think, some restaurant salads can clock in at over a thousand calories. Add to that the fact that everything including the greens often gets a sprinkling of salt, and it’s no wonder restaurant salads are so delicious.
Luckily, this is not the only thing that makes restaurant salads tasty. Restaurant salads are also composed with a number of factors in mind: a blend of flavors, textures, and colors that makes them super satisfying. You can easily borrow some of these elements of restaurant salads without bringing home all the calories.
Layered Blue Cheese Bacon And Iceberg Salad
What’s better than a classic wedge? One that’s stacked with all the usual suspects, plus some new friends. Carrots add just the right amount of color and root-veggie crunchiness. You can toss the salad with ranch or French dressing if you don’t have blue cheese on hand.
Get the Recipe: Layered Blue Cheese, Bacon and Iceberg Salad
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S For Making A Great Salad At Home
When making a delicious restaurant-style salad at home, think of it as a sum of parts. You’ll need a green, a dressing, a protein, and mix-ins. As you’re choosing each element, you’ll want to pay attention both to textures and flavors . Ensuring you have a combination of all of these components is the true secret to a satisfying salad.
Here Are My 11 Salad Making Tips For Restaurant Quality Salads
You can also watch my videos that will guide you on how to make salad dressings and some of my favourite salads.
Like what you see here? Stay connected with me on , , BlogLovin and .
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Tips For Perfect Salad Every Time:
- Chill dressing. It thickens it up and helps keeps the cold salad cold. Want to take it one step further? Serve salad on chilled plates.
- Rinse lettuce. Most of the time youll find a little bug or debris in there.
- Spin lettuce dry in a salad spinner. This is the best way to thoroughly dry lettuce leaves. If lettuce leaves are still wet dressing wont cling to the leaves and sort of just puddles at the bottom of the bowl.
- Use fresh grated cheese. The pre-shredded cheeses have a powdery cellulose coating and it doesnt taste as good.
- If time allows make homemade croutons.
- Serve immediately after you add salad dressing, the dressing starts to wilt the leaves and soak into the croutons and the salad gets sort of soggy.
How To Eat Salad Every Day And Like It
Love these salad recipes? Check out the eBook for How To Eat A Salad Every Day for more fantastic salad ideas, dressings, and tips to simplify your salad making!
With this eBook, if youre grocery shopping, meal planning, or just trying to eat more salads, youll have this information at your fingertips whenever you need it.
How To Eat Salad Every Day And Like It! could also be called My FAVORITE Salads .
This post was first published three years ago and almost immediately it became one of the most popular posts on this site. Im updating the post today to answer some of the more frequently asked questions.
Many of you have commented on my daily salads that I share on , and you asked for a post sharing tips for making the daily salad happen.
Today Im sharing all of my favorite salad recipes, the toppings, fillings, and more in one giant blog post. I promise you now, that if you give it a try, this just might rock your salad eating world.
I made you this video to show how I do this. Be sure to check it out!
While Id like to say that Ive always been a fan of salad, that hasnt always been true.
Ive always tried to love eating salad, but unless I went to the trouble of making a really great salad , it was hard to get excited about eating a salad most days.
That all changed when I topped my salad with a handful of Fritos for the first time. I know, that sounds completely ridiculous, but Im telling you now that Fritos are a salad game changer.
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How To Make The Best Salad :
- Make the dressing, chill: Add olive oil, lemon juice, garlic, dijon and honey to a jar. Add salt and pepper. Cover and seal with lid, shake to blend. If needed stir up honey if it sticks to bottom of jar. Chill in refrigerator while you prepare remainder.
- Toast almonds: Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds into an even layer on a small baking sheet. Bake in preheated oven until just lightly golden brown, about 6 10 minutes, tossing once halfway through toasting. Remove from oven, set aside to cool.
- Cook bacon: Increase oven temperature to 400 degrees. Line a rimmed 18 by 13-inch baking sheet with aluminum foil. Place bacon strips on baking sheet in a single layer. Bake in preheated oven until browned and nearly crisp , about 13 18 minutes .
- Drain excess fat: Transfer bacon to a plate lined with paper towels and let cool. Once cool chop bacon into small pieces.
- Prepare lettuce: Rinse lettuce under cold water and run though a salad spinner in batches to dry well. Add lettuce to a large serving bowl.
- Toss salad ingredients: Add in almonds, bacon, tomatoes, Swiss cheese, and parmesan cheese. Shake dressing again then pour over salad, toss salad then add croutons and toss again. Serve immediately.
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What Type Of Potato Is Best For Potato Salad
We use white potatoes, or Yukon Golds, in our familys recipe. Because they have a thinner skin, theyre easy to peel after boiling and taste creamier, a little sweeter, and hold their shape well after cooking. Avoid using starchier potatoes like russets that too easily turn to mush in salads like this.
Also remember to choose potatoes of the same size for the most consistent cooking.
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Think Beyond The Leafy Greens
I bet the first ingredient that pops into your mind when you hear the word salad is some kind of leafy green. While I do love greens, they dont need to be the star. I dare you to even leave them out completely. Theres a world of possibilities for salads beyond lettuce. Try a combination of other vegetables, fresh and dried fruits, nuts, cooked grains, and bread.
Whats In A Cobb Salad
A good Cobb salad contains lots and lots of toppings, all chopped up into bite-sized pieces. The lettuce base gets a burst of flavor and texture by using several types varietiesromaine, butter, Boston, frisee, endive or watercressbut you can use any type of lettuce you happen to have on hand. Just make sure to chop the lettuce into pieces that are small enough to fit on your fork.
As far as the toppings go, the classic preparation includes chicken, bacon, hard-boiled eggs, tomatoes, avocado and blue cheese. Its important to cook the chicken, bacon and eggs far enough in advance to let them cool, as hot toppings will cause the lettuce to wilt. You can use any method you like to cook the chicken. We like pan-roasted or grilled chicken breasts to ensure the chicken stays juicy as it cooks.
Recommended Reading: Which Salad Dressing Is The Healthiest
How To Make A Good Salad
I like to keep my salad pretty simple. Especially when its the starter for a beautiful dinner.
Below youll find my recipe for a simple dressing that brings out and enhances the natural flavors of greens without disguising or over powering their delicate and fresh flavors.
Turn ordinary salads into delicious salads.
And if you have a favorite tossed salad recipe, let me know, Id love to give it a try.
Now that youre a salad making expert youre probably looking for more ideas to make your best tossed green salad recipe for your next meal. Try the technique on these mixed green salad recipes.
Classic Ranch Salad Dressing
Classic Ranch: whisk cup buttermilk, cup mayonnaise , 2 tablespoons each chopped parsley and chives, 1 teaspoon dried dill weed, ¼ teaspoon each kosher salt, black pepper, and garlic powder. Once you start making homemade ranch, you’ll never go back to the store-bought dressing again. SO GOOD! This is perfect for cob salads, to dip fries in, over chicken salads, and most any other salads with romaine and other leaf lettuces as the base.
Also Check: How To Make Keto Salad Dressing
Dress It Before You Plate It
This simple trick allows dressing to evenly distribute and coat all the ingredients. Its a nice gesture to leave the dressing on the side, so everyone can add as much as theyd like, but pouring it over your salad leaves you with pools of dressing that can overwhelm every few bites. Sure, your greens will begin to wilt slowly as soon as theyre dressed, but if you wait until just before you eat, the salad wont turn soggy. Start adding a little at a time you can always add more, but a salad can go from great to overdressed quickly, so take heed!
Restaurant-Worthy Salads to Make at Home
How To Prep My Salad Bar:
I order all of my groceries online from Grocery Gateway, which is an online grocery store thats been around for 20 years!
Ive never ordered groceries online before and I was super impressed at how easy and convenient it was. I already had my grocery list at the ready so I just searched and found everything on the site and then ordered it. No different than ordering yoga pants online . I got to choose a delivery date and time, and before I knew it: a knock was on the door. And there were two boxes full of goodies. Chickpea dog was just as excited for the unboxing as I was.
If you want to try delivery groceries, Grocery Gateway was kind enough to offer all my readers $15 off your order. For both new or existing customers, just use this one-time case sensitive code by entering: GGSam2017 at checkout .
I must admit, I was a little worried that whoever was picking my produce wouldnt put the care into it that I normally do. I was considered they would choose lettuce that was old or a red pepper that had a squishy spot. But I was delighted to find that everything was fresh and perfect. They even deliver beer and wine! Pre-tay cool, this chick approves.
Once I had my groceries at the ready, it was just a matter of whipping up my salad dressings and chopping up some veg. Before I knew it, I had an at-home salad bar ready to go in no time.
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How To Build The Perfect Salad Every Time
How to Make the Best Greek Salad. Prep and combine the romaine lettuce, cherry tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, green peppers, olives and feta cheese in a large bowl. In a small bowl, make the lemon Greek salad dressing by whisking together the olive oil, lemon juice, oregano, salt and pepper. Pour the dressing over the salad and toss to combine.
This salad is really beautiful in a bundt pan or a 13×9 glass dish. It can be cut into slices to serve. Or you can mash it up and eat it the way we do! I also want to say that there is no cool whip in this recipe. If you want a sweeter, fluffier salad you can certainly fold in a small container before refrigerating.
How does Martha Stewart make chicken salad? Ingredients 2 cups chopped or shredded cooked chicken. 1/2 cup chopped celery. 1 tablespoon chopped fresh parsley leaves. 1/2 teaspoon coarse salt. 1/4 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper. 1 tablespoon fresh lemon juice. 1/3 cup mayonnaise, or to taste. 3 teaspoons unsalted butter, softened.
In a bowl, stir together mayonnaise, celery, lemon juice, and chives. Season with salt. Fold in chopped lobster meat. Lay lettuce on a serving platter, then top with lobster salad.
Layer the meats over the cheese so it covers the cheese evenly. Top with the lettuce, onion, peppers and pepperporcini. Sprinkle the salt, pepper, and herbs over the toppings, then drizzle lightly with the red wine vinegar. Top with the sliced tomatoes to pack the toppings in. Close the roll and cut in half.
What Youll Need To Make The Best Iceberg Lettuce Salad
You certainly dont need a laundry list of ingredients to build a gorgeous Iceberg Lettuce salad that really satisfies. No, really the trick here is making sure weve covered the important bases: crunchy, creamy, tangy, salty, spicy .
So, were going to reach for the things that best achieve each of those goals. The things that will hit those major targets. Feel free to swap in other ingredients for the ones that Ive written into the recipe. As with most of the recipes on MKL, that sort of simple riffing is always welcome.
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Whats In A Chef Salad
Lauren Habermehl for Taste of Home
At its core, a chef salad is a dish that includes hard-boiled eggs, assorted deli meats and cheese served over a bed of lettuce or mixed greens with a variety of seasonal, chopped fresh vegetables. Deli ham and turkey are the most popular meat choices on chef salads, but some also include roast beef or chicken.
Types of Toppings
Traditionally, youll find vegetables for a chef salad chopped in large, bite-sized pieces while the meats and cheeses are typically sliced into long strips or cut into cubes. Youll rarely see hard-boiled eggs on a chef salad crumbled or sliced. Most often, the eggs are simply cut in half or into quarters and arranged on top with the other ingredients.
Editors Tip: By cutting each of the various ingredients a little differently, you give chef salads a load of great texture in every bite. Find more salad tips from a restaurant pro.
Types of Dressing
Early chef salad recipes often cited French or Thousand Island as the dressing of choice. Modern recipes allow for more variation in dressings, though. Honey mustard, ranch and blue cheese are commonly recommended, but feel free to choose a salad dressing that suits your personal taste.