FOOD NEWS
14 Hacks For Making An Even Better Salad
BY MATT TURNER
Make It Colorful
You can make your salad appear more appetizing by introducing more color with some sliced grape tomatoes, sliced carrots, or even pomegranate seeds.
You can also add sliced apples, apricots, black lentils, and pickled red onions, among countless other ingredients. Include at least five colors to brighten up your salad.
Use Salad Spinner
Washing and drying your produce, especially lettuce, is crucial for food safety and challenging, as it's not easy to dry water trapped in its many crevices.
Similarly, soggy lettuce will also give your salad a bad texture. That's why a salad spinner effectively removes excess water, keeping your greens crisp and fresh for longer.
Add Some Crunch
A crisp lettuce alone isn't enough to give a salad a satiating texture, so get creative with your crunchy elements by adding nuts, seeds, or even noodles.
They add to the flavor, texture, and nutrition. Ingredients like flax, chia, and poppy seeds also don't get soggy when the dressing is added, ensuring a crunchy bite.
Veggie Peeler
Use a peeler to create ribbons of veggies like carrots or bell peppers. You can create perfect spirals mimicking a flower or introduce new shapes in your salad.
To add warmer elements, you can sauté the ribbons in butter or chicken broth. Peelers can also be used to de-string celery, remove stems from strawberries, or even shave cheeses.
Swap Iceberg Lettuce
Starting every salad with iceberg lettuce can get mundane. Consider swapping it out for other leafy greens to improve the flavor and also add health benefits.
Kale, chard, bok choy, collard greens, and spinach are a few healthy alternatives, as are non-leafy options like chickpeas, broccoli, tomato, and watermelon.