Salad Basics - How To Make The Perfect Salad

Salads have become a meal time standard. Toss up a starting course of some mixed greens, mix up a side dish of creamy potato salad or a hearty pasta salad for center stage. Now lets brush up on our salad basics.

Selecting Storing And Handling Salad Greens

You'll want to choose fresh, crisp greens with no bruises, discoloration or wilting.

You can choose from the below or mix as many of them as you like for a delicious green salad.

1. Arugula, has small slender, dark leaves that are similar to radish leaves. You'll want to choose smaller leaves for a milder flavor.

2.Radicchio, looks like a small loose leaf cabbage with small tender leaves and a some what bitter flavor.

3. Mixed Salad Greens (Prepackaged ) You'll find these for sale in most supermarkets and grocery stores and you can use these salad greens as a base for lots of other salads.

4. Spinach, you can choose packages of baby spinach and add a lot of flavor to any salad. Baby spinach is also very good for you.

5. Cabbage, you can add finely shredded red, purple, or regular cabbage to your mix and add a lot of body, flavor, and depth with this choice.

6. Wild Greens, you'll usually find these sold as a prepackaged mix and they include dandelion, oak leaf lettuce, chickweed, chervil, and a few others. These pack a lot of flavor.

7. Iceberg, This is one of the old time favorites that a lot of people use. Shred it up in long ribbons and add a delightfully unique texture.

Once you've chosen your green mixture you can add red sweet onion, radishes, bell peppers, green onions, chives, cucumbers, broccoli, canned washed and drained beans, hot peppers, tuna, chicken, baby corn, and lots of other choices to come up with a delightfully delicious salad that will have people including you wanting more.

You'll want to be sure to choose fresh, crisp greens that have no bruises, discoloration or spots. If the greens look wilted or discolored discard them and don't use.

For best results mix mild flavored greens with more flavorful ones. Try tossing iceberg with spinach with a few pine nuts thrown in to build a delicious flavorful salad with a lot of body and flavor. Top it with feta cheese, diced fresh tomatoes, and crumbled bacon for a tasty treat that will have you wanting more.

Tomatoes have a lot of water in them so wait until your just about ready to serve your salad before you add the tomatoes. Try all the new heirloom tomatoes showing up at flea markets and farmers markets now. If you do you'll find some delicious new flavors.

And finally no recipe is written in stone. Try thinking outside the box and come up with combinations that you like. Your going after flavors that you like or that compliment each other or you should be. Try adding pine nuts, fine chopped anchovies, crumbled blue cheese or other unique ingredients to bring out delightfully new flavors that people are sure to love.

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