How to make a perfect salad.. every time.

#1 Have a nut and seed mix in your cabinet.

My favorite is Pistachios, sesame seeds and pumpkin seeds, but really any combo works. Walnuts, pine nuts and white sesame seeds are good too. Have a container of toasted seeds readily available and it will up the quality of any salad.

#2 Put fruit in your salad... but not berries.

Apples, oranges, peaches, persimmon, melon. Just don't put berries.

#3 Crumble some hard cheese.

Having crumbled hard cheese like parmesan, farmhouse cheddar, or a gouda cling to the leaves of the lettuce and makes the complexity and satisfaction of any salad better. Hard crumbly cheese creates a substantial well rounded salad. Blue cheese is a great option as well!

#4 There should be almost as much "stuff" as there is lettuce.

There is nothing worse with a salad that has "stuff" in it but there isn't enough. If you aren't going to put a lot of everything then just make it a simple green salad.

#5 Make a lot of salad dressing at once!

Also... your salad dressing should probably have more vinegar in it than you think. Make a lot at once and its okay if it separates—you can just re-shake it!

#6 Texture, Fat, Acid, Sweet.

Texture, acid, sweet and fat make any salad the best!

#7 Protein makes a meal.

Add some protein and you have yourself a salad as a whole meal.

 

photos: John Troxell