Perking Up A Boring and Dull Salad

At the top of my head....and in no particular order:

• Cubes of Gruyère or Cheddar, or little pieces of smoked provolone. 

• Crumbled feta cheese

• Melted goat cheese on toast

• Walnuts, toasted pine nuts, roasted crumbled peanuts

• Olives

• Capers

• Cornichons

• Canned tuna

• Soft boiled or poached eggs

• Minced shallots steeped in vinegar

• Fried shallots, fried garlic (for a Vietnamese touch)

• Freshly fried, still hot bacon cubes (not flat stale cold bacon bits)

• Dried fruits (raisins, cranberries)

• Croutons

The trick is making it unique to your establishment and also making it so 95% of your customers like it.

Texture is very important.  I don't like cheese in my salads, but I know my hubby does so we make separate salads. 

- A few herbs do the trick fast to perk it up. 

- I love the texture of avocado in my salad. 

- I like to pan roast almonds with salt/pepper and sugar too. 

- mix in a half tsp of jam (raspberry or strawberry for me!) in your dressing

- a handful of peas or corn (defrosted)

- roasted colorful peppers

- Add relish or chutney to the dressing.

Even an everyday leafy salad can become exciting if you perk up the dressing:

- mix in a half tsp of jam (raspberry or strawberry or raspberry for me!)

- add some dill relish

- roasted garlic

- a spoonful of chutney

- roasted citrus (if I'm making a roast I sometimes add a halved lemon or orange to the roasting pan flesh side down and then squeeze the roasted juice into my vinegraitte)

Yeah I think a unique dressing is important.  A house salad deserves a house dressing.

pomegranate molasses is a good dressing addition.

I'm a fan of combining chinese black vinegar and a commercial grade balsamic (not a fancy one) in a vinaigrette. Takes it in a new direction that most won't recognize. My wife is a big fan of this particular vinaigrette with pomegranate seeds in the salad.

I like nuoc cham as a salad dressing and it uses no oil at all, though it's certainly asian in flavor.  http://www.vietworldkitchen.com/blog/2008/11/basic-vietnamese-dipping-sauce-nuoc-cham.html is a fairly traditional approach to the sauce. I often shortcut it by using a thai sweet chili sauce instead of the sugar and chilis.

For me , a dinner salad should always include hard boiled egg ?

Quote:

Originally Posted by kaneohegirlinaz 

Tonight's dinner is going to be a entrée salad.

As I poke around in the 'fridge, this topic comes to my mind.

I think that I'll do a play on an antipasti type of salad:

salami, cheese, olives, anchovies, and of course the lettuces, tomatoes, onions, some English cucumbers, radishes, with a simply vinaigrette

All in a really big bowl

How did it turn out?  It sounds a little salty with those first 4 ingredients. 

I think a great way to perk up a salad is to try and introduce a fruit. I had so many salads in barcelona that beautifully balanced fruit, meats and cheeses and nuts with rocket and other salad leaves. 

Since oranges and apples are knocking around a few flavor pairings for you to try and use these fruit with in salads are

Orange pairings

Hope that gives you some inspiration.

Cooked pasta is a nice addition to a salad. Bow ties, fusilli, shells, not cooked al dente though. Goes good with meats, cheese, olive, etc. I like to toss with a light vinaigrette and add a spoon full of good blue cheese dressing on top to mix in.

I like Ponzu as a different, fresher Asian flavor on a salad. It plays well with sweet or savory, too.

When I was a poor, young teacher struggling through the summers (we were paid on a 10-month basis), I ate a lot of salads with cottage cheese, sliced fresh mushrooms, cherry tomatoes, diced carrots and sunflower seed kernels (for a splurge). I topped it off with a drizzle of low cal French dressing. A bowlful of that was very filling. It's still a favorite comfort food for me in summer. Nothing exotic, but tasty.