Perfect Salad Making

Salads are the perfect summer meal. Here is the recepy for salad.

When temperatures soar as they are doing now and appetites are low, there’s nothing like a pile of crisp veggies, dressed and garnished right to make meal times pleasant. Making a salad at home is a breeze if you stick to some basics. Here’s a guide to get you started:

Since most salads are no-cook, the quality of the ingredients you use is of utmost importance. Fruits, veggies, meat, cheese, bread, almost anything can go into a salad, but greens are usally at the heart of most summer salads. Indian supermarkets now have a fairly good variety of salad greens.

* Lettuce is what most people start off with when attempting to build a salad and iceberg lettuce, with its bland taste and crisp texture is most popular. Romaine lettuce, with closely packed leaves in an elongated head, has a more complex flavour and a slight bitterness. Arugula or rocket is
a current favourite in salads, especially in restaurants, and its bitter tones and pepper bite are great for combining with ingredients with contrasting flavours such as blue cheese or grapes.

You should also be able to find frisee with its curly edges on most supermarket shelves. Baby spinach is a great addition to salads as well.

While choosing greens look for fresh, bright specimens with no signs of wilting or brown spots. Cleaning and drying your greens is crucial to a good salad. Pick the leaves and wash several times in plenty of water, lifting the leaves out every time. Drain well. A salad-spinner for drying leaves is an excellent investment if you plan to make salads frequently. Else, pat the leaves dry. It’s important to get rid of as much moisture as possible. Leaving the dried leaves in the fridge for a while helps to crisp them up as well. Limp leaves are a no-no in any salad.

Once you have your mix of greens together, use your imagination to build on that with vegetables and other ingredients. Steamed asparagus stalks or tender green beans, ripe tomatoes, cucumber, peppers either raw or roasted and peeled artichoke hearts can all be on your list.

The right combination of fruit can enhance salads too. Orange wedges, apple or pear slices dipped in lemon juice, juicy black grapes, pomegranate, will all do the trick, as will toasted nuts.

Add on some cheese if you like — bocconcini with tomatoes, blue cheese with pears and rocket, parmesan in a Caesar salad. Mix and

match, and you could come up with exciting combinations.

The dressing is what finishes your salad and holds it all together. A classic vinaigrette is a good starting point. To make this, shake up 3 parts olive oil with one part vinegar, adding salt, pepper, a pinch of sugar to taste. You may wish to add garlic, herbs, mustard etc to perk your dressing up. Dress your greens just before serving, tossing lightly to ensure even distribution.

A good salad could do with a tasty garnish flavoured croutons, shavings of cheese, a scattering of herbs or sprouted mustard can all work.

To add substance to your salad, pile on cold meats, hardboiled eggs or tuna chunks.

Understanding your ingredients and combining them correctly is the fun part of tossing up a salad at home.