A Little Tomato Prep Goes A Long Way To Prevent Wet Salads
No one likes a soggy salad, yet the minute you throw all those delicious vegetables into a salad bowl, you are setting it up to become a watery mess of a failure. Delicate leafy greens, vociferously crunchy cucumbers, and tender tomatoes are part of salad essentials 101, and yet these ingredients also contain a large amount of water. According to Ontario Equestrian, these standard salad makings are 90% water, and Substitute Cooking explains it is this high water content that can cause your salad to become limp and waterlogged.
Tomatoes are definitely a contributing hazard to this culinary staple. While they taste delicious in a classic BLT, mixed in with your favorite salad, or sliced thinly and layered between slices of cheese for a grilled cheese sandwich, tomatoes can be enemy number one when it comes to keeping a salad perky and ready to eat. But the good news is, there is a simple fix, according to Pure Wow. In fact, the site reveals that a little tomato prep goes a long way to prevent wet salads, and once you start using this tip, you may never go back.
Seeds vs. Flavor
Per PureWow, if you want to keep your salad from taking on extra moisture, you may want to consider deseeding your tomatoes before you add them to your greens. The outlet shares that it's easy to get rid of the seeds and jelly they are packed in. Simply remove the middle or core with a knife and cut your tomato in half. Then all you have to do is take a spoon and scoop out all the seeds along with the goo that surrounds them. An added bonus to this trick is if you don't like the texture or have an aversion to the jelly bit you are removing, you won't miss it.
However, according to WBUR, you are sacrificing flavor when you deseed your tomatoes. America's Test Kitchen host Chris Kimball told the media outlet, "It turns out the seed in [the tomato] jelly ... has three times more flavor compounds called glutamates than the flesh, so when you seed the tomato... you're throwing out most of the flavor." Tomatoes can cause quite a conundrum. Eat This, Not That! suggests salad can be saved from a soggy demise by simply waiting to throw all the salad ingredients together right before you are ready to serve and eat it. This manner of prepping can not only save your salad from becoming limp but will preserve the taste of your tomatoes.