You're Probably Adding Warm Ingredients To Cold Salad Completely Wrong

A top-notch salad requires certain textures that are crisp, snappy, juicy — all qualities that thrive at cooler temperatures. But, there's an undeniable level-up effect when you mix in cooked ingredients. Think charred Brussels sprouts, roasted sweet potatoes, grilled chicken, seared tuna, or poached egg. All that charring or roasting or searing balances the lighter, more herbaceous notes of raw ingredients with deep notes of caramelization and savoriness. This can seem like a tricky dance, though: How can you add these heated ingredients to your fresh greens and raw vegetables without making everything go limp? Soggy salad is a fate no one deserves, so we asked an expert on how to properly incorporate warm ingredients in our cold salads. 

"Let warm ingredients (like roasted vegetables or grilled proteins) cool slightly to avoid wilting greens and add them right before serving," says Chef Megan McCarthy, Edible Garden Chef at the Atlanta Botanical Garden, Founder of Healthy Eating 101, and a Have A Plant Ambassador for The Foundation for Fresh Produce. "Layer warm items on top and to maintain the freshness of greens. I like to make roasted veggie bowls with some fresh greens as well, so they sit nicely next to each other." If you let your items cool a bit and also don't let them hang out too long with cold ingredients, you can fully combine when eating for all of the textures, none of the wilting.

Once you know how to incorporate warm ingredients without your greens wilting and your raw veggies getting slimy — or your fresh cheese melting, and so on — you'll want to put that information to use with a delicious salad. The possibilities are limitless. Try a teriyaki chicken crunch dinner salad. You'll marinate the chicken in a tasty teriyaki sauce and sear it with peanut sauce, but then let it cool a bit before slicing it and placing it on top of your crisp lettuce, carrots, and broccoli. You can also upgrade a classic by making your Caesar salad with freshly — but cooled — grilled chicken. McCarthy says you can use heartier, more robust greens when worried about wilting in the face of warm ingredients, and luckily, there's nothing easier or tastier than a kale Caesar salad.

Grilled watermelon salad is a summertime favorite, but you'll want your watermelon to cool down a bit before you mix up the salad, not only for the sake of the greens but also so your crumbly feta doesn't turn into a goopy mess. On the opposite end of the spectrum, there's Ina Garten's maple-roasted carrot salad that's cozy for fall and winter; you'll definitely want to allow some cool-down time for the carrots so the salad's arugula isn't compromised. Ditto that for roasted butternut squash salad, where the brown sugar quality of oven-cooked squash pops against bright, juicy pomegranate seeds.