Salad Ideas

Summertime means bring on the salad for many across this nation. There’s certainly no end to the possibilities! I can’t think of an easier way to get in your seven per day than to eat a lot of salad. Salads are a great way to use up produce from your garden, and an incentive to buy fresh picked fruits and vegetables from roadside stands.

Simple Salad Ideas to Make You Look Good

Here’s some simple salad ideas that makes certain salads especially good, since some of the ingredients are easily marinated for a time before serving. When you make a salad for a party, or your family, put the dressing in the bottom of the salad bowl. Then add the ingredients that taste best marinated (of course this depends on personal preference)—like cucumbers, strawberries, grapes, mushrooms, tomatoes, onion, parmesan, chicken, etc. Pile dry salad greens on top, cover and chill while making the rest of your meal. When the dinner bell sounds, place the bowl on the table and toss well just before serving. Putting any “crunchies” like nuts, sunflower seeds or croutons on top of the dry greens keeps them from becoming soggy since you wait to toss until the last minute.

Just some little salad ideas to add some flavor, and make it look like “hey, I know what I’m doin’ here!”

Salad Ideas Can Be Fun

Variety is the spice of life, so they say, and is certainly the easy rule of thumb when it comes to eating healthy. Even when considering a tossed salad, variety can boost not only the nutritional value but the presentation, aesthetically speaking also. You don’t always have to know all about your greens to make good things happen. Experimenting can be fun! Simple salad ideas - remember to mix the dark with the light, the crisp with the tender: this will please not only your palate and your eye, but also your guests and family. There are many varieties of lettuce of course, ranging in color, but don’t stop there. Add fresh spinach, bright accents like dandelion, beet or mustard tops, and watercress.

Salad Ideas with The Greens

Wash greens only as you need them, and let them dry well. For most greens, use only the choicest parts, discarding stems and cores—good rule of thumb for when you’re using something for the first time and aren’t quite sure what to do with it. Usually, tearing rather than cutting greens is best.

Formal Presentation Salad Ideas

Salads can be arranged simply, and still be very attractive. On some occasions you may want a more formal presentation: try centering the bowl with a tomato flower. Cut the brown core out and then slice the tomato (stopping short of all the way through) into 6 wedges. Pull these apart barely and sit the tomato in the center of the salad. Try radiating avocado leaves or circling the bowl with a hedge of watercress. Sliced, hard-boiled eggs make a bright colored circle in the center of a salad. Black olives make nice accents in between egg or tomato circles, etc.

A salad can brighten and enliven a meal: be a meal. Use our salad ideas and have fun with salads!