Posted by
Now before you all start chanting “You don’t win friends with salad!” at me in a conga line, understand that I too was once perplexed at the idea that salad could be delicious. No longer. I’m going to share my salad recipes with you and hopefully you’ll have the same tasty epiphany that I did.
For me to eat salad, it has to be delicious and easy. These recipes are actually just ingredient lists. Get the ingredients, chop what needs to be chopped into bite-sized pieces, and throw it in a bowl. Nice and easy and also tasty. Please note though, that I still don’t like salad dressing. I know this is blasphemous to many. I’ll link a suggestion I’ve found online with each, and feel free to share your suggestions in the comments. But I’m just saying that it might be worth it to try these babies sans dressing before you make up your mind.
Oh, and I named them all silly things because these are my recipes and I have that kind of power.
The Razzmatazz
- the green: baby spinach
- the cheese: feta, crumbled
- the fruit: raspberries (I added some cucumber too)
- the nut: pine nuts
- the dressing: raspberry balsamic
The Pearly Beloved
- the green: baby Romaine
- the cheese: Stilton, crumbled
- the fruit: pear chunks
- the nut: walnuts
- the dressing: white wine vinaigrette
The Santa Monica, Probably
- the green: kale
- the cheese substitute: avocado chunks
- the fruit: strawberries
- the nut: pecans
- the dressing: lemon poppyseed
The Hip Granny
- the green: Romaine
- the cheese: shredded cheddar
- the fruit: Granny Smith apple chunks, dried cranberries
- the nut: almond slices
- the dressing: balsamic
The Roman Holiday
- the green: basil leaves
- the cheese: bocconcini
- the fruit: Roma tomatoes
- the nut substitute: croutons
- the dressing: olive oil and balsamic vinegar drizzles (this is the one I use dressing with)
Salad haters: What are your favorite non-threatening salads?
I’m also not a fan of dressing on my salads.
This is one of my favorites to make when peaches are in season:
– peaches
– Persian cucumbers
– string beans
– pecans
– crumbled blue cheese
Chop the peaches and cucumbers into bite size chunks. Blanch the string beans. Then throw everything together and enjoy. If you have some underripe peaches on hand and a little bit of time you can grill them before adding them to the salad.
A salad I love to make when it’s hot :
– grated carrots
– cucumber cut in small bits
– a can of sweet corn
– shrimps cut in small bits.
Use a creamy dressing – those white ones they sell in bottles.
My husband also isn’t a big dressing fan and usually tends to oil and vinegar instead, but I love creamy dressing so we add some yoghurt and it’s light and delicious for both of us!
Here’s what we usually use:
– small jar with lid for easy mixing by shaking
– olive oil
– balsamic vinegar
– yoghurt with 3.5% fat (the amount of fat is directly related to the thickness of your dressing – anything between 1.5% and 10% has worked fine for us, just adjust the amount in relation to the liquids)
– salt & fresh ground pepper
– chopped herbs, frozen (they basically “melt” when you mix/shake them in)
Super simple and we always have all the ingredients, so we just make enough for each meal. Of course you can also add mustard, blue cheese, different kinds of oil or vinegar, honey, etc. but usually I end up with this combo.
I wish to pin this please!
Also, since someone just mentioned shrimp, I don’t know if I’d really call it a salad, but I love ceviche – there are about a million versions of it, but I guess the one we use is a little more salad-y because we tend to go heavier on the veggies: http://www.simplyrecipes.com/recipes/shrimp_ceviche/
I usually don’t have a chili so I’ve taken to just adding some red pepper flakes and calling it good, but I’m not a big spicy-food eater.
I chop the cucumber and avacado so the chunks are about the size of the shrimp and try to get about the same amount of each of the ingredients. You’re supposed to let the shrimp marinate in the acidic juices first, but I’m so slow at chopping I just keep adding stuff to the bowl in the order mentioned and mix at the end and it works out fine too. The shrimp is still in the longest and is pretty much covered by the lemon and lime juice.
We usually have ours as a kind of elaborate dip on tortilla chips, but that’s just because they’re a lot easier to find here than actual tortillas. Also, I’m kind of a salt fiend.
Nobody has mentioned a wilted leaf salad. My mom made them and we loved them. Check the net and find one, I don’t even have her recipe anymore, but I do use an internet recipe if one looks good.
It basically goes like this… Fry up bacon, crumble over greens (spinach?), pour hot bacon grease with basic apple cider, place a plate over the bowl to wilt the greens. In spite of the grease it’s actually very light. (I don’t even care it’s a vein clotting masterpiece, I say that cause we have banned all “unhealthy foods, and bacon apparently fits that list.)
Also, I think that only one person has listed fruit salads in and of them selves. Did I miss something saying these have to be green salads? Anyway, as my husband is a bee keeper so I try to use honey everyday. We are up to our necks in honey despite how much we sell. (Just look around. I bet someone in your neighborhood, yes, right next door, keeps bees, so you can keep it local.)
So sliced fruit:apples, or bananas, or nectarines, or peaches, with a small drizzle of honey, sprinkle with a tiny bit of cinnamon or cocoa. Toss in nuts if you like. Drop on a few cherries, or berries for color.
Also, check into a rosemary syrup over kiwi and grapes. Amazing. I got the recipe from a book so not sure if it legal to share the actual recipe. Yes, it’s sugar, but, it’s amazing, (and impresses the hell out of shitty in laws whose whole goal is to look down on everyone on the planet, especially you.)
I would love to know the recipe for the rosemary syrup. You can share recipes since they aren’t copyrightable (just the names of things are-hence all the cronut clones called other things). I think the nice thing though is to just say where you got the recipe from to give credit to the creator and give people oppurtunity to find similar recipes.
This recipe is by Williams-Sonoma from their “Starters” cookbook.
I have used more than 50 % of the recipes and have only been disappointed with one or two.
3 kiwi fruits, peeled and diced
2 Granny Smith apples unpeeled, cored n diced
1 cup green seedless grapes, halved
1/4 cup sugar
Three 6 inch sprigs rosemary
1/2 cup water
Boil water and sugar medium-high until sugar is dissolved. Add rosemary, reduce heat to medium and cook for 15 minutes. Remove rosemary and cook on high until reduced to about 1/3 cup. Cool to room temperature.
Put fruits in a bowl and pour the syrup over them, and toss to coat. Serve immediately.
Just so simple and elegant.
My favorite salad is spinach, strawberries, candied pecans, dried cranberries, and goat cheese with a sprinkling of balsamic vinegar (I don’t even bother with oil). It is a nice mix of textures and flavors.
Can you eat pine nuts raw? Are they nice? I’ve never tried them untoasted. I am intrigued.
Also, for the salad dressing phobes, my husband hates salad dressing but absolutely loved the salad we had in Italy which essentially was dressed with really good olive oil and a bit of rock salt and nothing else. It was damn good.
I’ll eat anything with goat cheese and vinegar. Anything. Sometimes I make a salad with just beets, goat cheese, and either honey or a vinegar-something. A local Mexican restaurant makes a sweet pork salad with beans, rice, cheese, guacamole, pico de gallo (which is another of my favorite foods), and cilantro lime vinaigrette on a tortilla. We copy that one at home sometimes.
My very-most-favorite salad is actually the one we had at our wedding- afterwards I craved it constantly so we started making it at home. I think I posted the recipe somewhere, I’ll see if I can find it…
Ah yes, here we go. Not that you really need a recipe. Strawberries, chevre, balsamic, win.
http://www.bombasine.com/2013/08/best-salad-ever.html
I am a salad lover who hates dressings, oil, vinaigrette or whatever other liquidy sauce people pour onto it. I love all of those things, but not on my salad!
I have actually turned several salad hating friends on to salads by just taking the dressing away! That’s my advice to anyone who is trying to get someone to try salads.
OMG thank you so much for this post! The lemon dressing in the Santa Monica has helped solve my quest to defeat the browning avocado. Made up a big bowl of this salad at the start of last week and it kept me going until Thursday (Fridays are sandwich treat days). Looking forward to trying out the other salads on the list 🙂
For those of us who aren’t on the heavy, creamy dressing boat but still want a little more variety than plain ol’ olive oil and balsamic, I submit to you: THE FLAVORED BALSAMIC VINEGAR.
I have a bottle of cherry balsamic, which is tangy, a little thicker than regular balsamic, and a little sweet. That, plus EVOO, is the ultimate tasty salad dressing. They also make exciting things like pear balsamic and raspberry balsamic.
Bask in my wonders; these are my gifts to you.
I was hopeful when opening this post. Alas, I’m still not interested in salad. 🙁
I order this religiously at Salata and I make it at home too. Out it is 10 bucks. In runs about 4 or 5. The trick to enjoying salad for me is CHOPPED. EVERYTHING.
Romaine & kale
Tomato
Sprouts
Radish
Broccoli
Snow peas in pods
Peppers
Black Olives
Cukes
Cilantro or basil
Celery
Mushrooms
Blue cheese crumbles
Red onion
Grilled chicken or raw tofu
Avocado sometimes
Dressing can be ginger lime, balsalmic vin, or light honey mustard. I always do about a Tbsp… too much ruins it.
My go-to is a handful of spring greens and arugula with some red table grapes, spring onion, diced cherry tomatoes, some shredded chicken, and a lemony Greek tahini dressing from Wegmans that I suspect is basically EVOO, tahini, lemon juice, salt, and some herbs. Damn delicious.
We also like to cook quinoa in veggie broth, then serve that with cut up tomatoes, feta cheese, fresh herbs, shredded carrots, and Italian vinaigrette in the summer. Super easy, super tasty.
The salads in the article sound really good…except I’d have to substitute something else for the leafy greens because they make me violently ill.
My stepdad tried to force me to eat leafy greens as a kid and that did not end well. Even now, I can’t stomach the smell of them. :/