What Components Do You Need To Make A Baked Salad?
In various parts of the world, a simple salad may look completely different than what you are used to. For instance, in Thailand, larb salad reigns supreme, primarily composed of savory minced meat, while in Armenia, tabbouleh is a staple, which is made with bulgar (via Erudus). And who can forget some of the most infamous American salads, like frog eye salad, which are more dessert than vegetable?
One thing that unifies the salads above, as well as many other salad recipes, is that the dishes are served cold — after all, who wants a warm salad? Well, blogger and TikToker Justine Doiron feels that is a mistake and has become a champion for what she dubbed "baked salads." And while Doiron may not have invented salads that feature toasty vegetables (roasted butternut squash salad has been a fall favorite for quite some time now), she coined the phrase and got baked salads trending on social media, converting many to team warm salad.
Baked salad is almost anything you want it to be
One of Doiron's most popular baked salad TikToks is for a fully-roast bowl featuring kale, cabbage, and crispy quinoa. In the clip, the recipe developer gives her reason for calling these dishes "baked salads," stating "it is a salad ... where everything is baked."
If that sounds ridiculously simple, that's because it is (in a good way). A quick search for the phrase "baked salad" on TikTok will bring up a wide variety of recipe videos (with nearly all of the top-ranking ones coming from trend-creator Doiron herself). The elements almost all of them share, however, are roast veggies, dressing, and a base of some kind — either grains or greens, for the most part.
Other than that you can let your imagination run wild! Take inspo from your favorite salad and give it a cold-weather twist by roasting select components, just remember to keep textures balanced by including something crunchy and some sort of dressing, lest you end up with a dish that's overly mushy or dry. And don't forget, not all the ingredients will be able to take the heat, so if you're not following a recipe meant to be roasted consider starting small with tried-and-true oven-friendly ingredients like chickpeas, kale, broccoli, and carrots until you feel confident in your baked salad skills.