VMBURNS: After Cleo Coyle shared her Franch Dressing, I started to crave a salad. Yet, no matter what I do, my salads just aren't that special. Why is it when I make a salad at home, it never tastes as good as when I get it at a restaurant? Is it just me? I recently tried to recreate a salmon salad that I LOVE from a local eatery. I used all of the same ingredients (well, the ones I know about). I fried my own bacon. I charred the corn, I added crunch, I seasoned, but it just wasn't as tasty. I have researched salads (yes, I'm that much of a nerd) and found that its important to include seasoning (salt, pepper, etc). Also, make sure your lettuce is dry. I try to include sweet, salty, and crunchy. It was good, but it wasn't great. So, I thought I'd ask the experts. Spill it! What's your secret salad ingredient? Or, what technique do you use to get the tastiest salad ever?
LUCY BURDETTE: Valerie, you aren't alone on this! I used to order a salad in an Italian restaurant near Hartford that I could have lived on. It had polenta croutons, mozzarella balls, roasted garlic cloves and who knows what else. I have never been able to recreate it! But in general, cheese! Fresh feta cheese from the farmer's market or crumbles of blue cheese. Fresh mozzarella with garden tomatoes... If I'm not too lazy to make homemade croutons, those help enormously! Now I'm looking forward to all the other secrets... (And ps, your salad looks amazing!)
LESLIE BUDEWITZ: First let me say I would eat either of your salads in a heartbeat! Throw in bacon and hardboiled eggs and I'm in. And Caprese salad is the food of the gods as far as I'm concerned. Seeing yours reminds me of one I had in Giverny on our first trip to France. Absolutely perfect tomatoes with a light, nutty olive oil I can still taste in my memory.
Years ago, when I was a young lawyer in Seattle and had just bought my first house, I discovered an Italian restaurant in the neighborhood. It was a joint -- homey, not fancy, with red and white checked tablecloths and Dean Martin on the airwaves. I adored it and took myself there regularly. The salads -- what we might call a dinner salad or a side salad -- were super simple -- iceberg lettuce with tomatoes, Greek olives, and a homemade Italian dressing, croutons, and a few other bits and bites. I can still picture the giant bowl of lettuce in the glass-front chiller at the end of the counter, and see the waiter assembling the salad before my very eyes. Maybe what made it so wonderful was that I was making a place and a neighborhood my own.
Now a salad AS dinner is another critter, and we collected a few of our favorites a couple of years ago, in this post, Salad as a Meal. I'd eat any of those, too! Turns out I've posted a LOT of salad recipes here over the years, but I'll leave you with just one, Mosiac Salad. Salad as art?
I don’t know the secret to the perfect salad, but I know it’s worth the chase!
PEG COCHRAN/MARGARET LOUDON: I love salad--side salads, dinner salads, all of them. Our usual salad is lettuce, those baby tomatoes, red onion, cucumber, blue cheese and dried cranberries. I've also made a ramen noodle salad that includes edamame and a winter salad that includes mandarin oranges and a dressing with orange marmalade in it. I find that the dressing makes a big difference in any salad. I love a classic vinaigrette. My friend Clementine used to put a pinch of curry powder in hers. Just the tiniest pinch takes the dressing to a whole new level. My other go to dressing is lower calorie homemade ranch. But when I want something different, I whip up a version of Japanese salad dressing or the dressing with marmalade. Even a bowl of plain lettuce tastes great with the right dressing!
KORINA MOSS: I agree with you, Valerie. They're just not the same at home, however my sister-in-law makes amazing salads. Perhaps it's the fresh local farmstand produce. My favorite salad in the summer is a burrata salad. (Cheese is my favorite? Who me?) I characterize burrata as the Lindor Truffle of cheese -- it's wonderfully creamy and decadent. I also love fresh corn in a salad, scraped off the cob. It gives the salad a touch of sweetness. Here are two burrata salads, one made with strawberries and off the vine tomatoes, and one with tomatoes and fresh corn (the burrata is hiding underneath). Both have simple greens and freshly grated parmesan cheese with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.
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MADDIE DAY: What a great challenge! Some of the best salads I've had have been super-simple creations made with fresh-picked ingredients. I had two primo experiences forty years ago in graduate school. One was a Caesar salad tossed at the table with whole leaves of dry romaine lettuce. A raw egg coddled in hot water. Salt. Pepper. Excellent olive oil. Freshly grated Parmesan cheese. That's it. Our host tossed it with his (clean hands) and it was absolutely delicious.
In the same era, my Greek friend Marios, who taught himself to cook using his mother's recipes, would make a real Greek salad that I have recreated many times. I cut homegrown skinny cucumbers into cubes. Halve homegrown gold cherry tomatoes. Sprinkle on Kalamata olives and cubes of feta cheese, add fresh oregano leaves, and drizzle with a good olive oil. Marios served it with a crusty baguette, and guests dipped their hunks of bread into the juices. I do the same. I can't believe I haven't shared the recipe here on the blog, but I will later this month.
Meanwhile, I was on vacation last week, and Hugh was making BLTs for lunch every day. I'd been eating just a wee bit too much, so I opted for a BLT salad, sans bread. Fresh local lettuce and heirloom tomato, topped with two crispy rashers, was all I wanted. I dabbed on a little good mayo, and it was delicious. It's all about the ingredients.
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LESLIE KARST: I'm with you, Peg--it's often the dressing that makes the difference between a good and a great salad. And I learned in culinary arts school that almost all restaurants add sugar to their salad dressings--not a lot, but just enough to give it that extra zip (like what a little salt can do for a dish).
a composed salad with left-over string beans and cheese
In addition, it's the variety of textures: adding something crunchy like croutons (those salty snack packets they give you on airplanes make for great salad toppings!) can make a huge difference to a salad. And experimenting with a combination of different favors is also fun--sweet (raisins or sliced pears), salty (crumbled feta or olives), sour (picked onions), and savory (smoked fish or meat).
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LIBBY KLEIN: I feel like I have had more than my fair share of salads in my lifetime. And many of them have been designed around some deprivation diet. If I never had to eat iceberg lettuce again I think that would be cause to celebrate. But seeing as how salads are incredibly healthy and full of vegetables, taking them out of the diet category and placing them in their rightful place of creative side dish would go a long way to improving their status. The most important element to a salad for me is variety. There are too many wonderful ingredients to just stick to the steakhouse side salad big four. I love a Chinese Chicken Salad made with napa cabbage and a peanut dressing. And I adore any combination of fruit, nuts, and cheese - but never fruit and tomato on the same salad. That's just weird. My all time favorite salad, has to be what I call Pink Salad. Pink napa cabbage, red lettuce, radicchio, red onions soaked in sherry wine vinegar to make their color pop. Sliced strawberries, and my all time favorite ingredient for visual appeal - watermelon radish. Like tiny little watermelons, these are vibrant green on the outside and hot pink in the center. I top this salad with a nut and a cheese because that right there makes me want to eat it, and a strawberry balsamic dressing. I wish I had a photo for you because this is a stunning salad perfect for special occasions. As soon as I can find the ingredients, I will make it for the blog.
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MOLLY MACRAE: I love this topic, Valerie. We're all detectives on
the trail of the elusive Salad Supreme. At my house we eat a lot of main dish salads, so the other night I brought up the question of favorite or secret
ingredients. Our first thoughts are salt, pepper, lemon juice and lemon zest, but
from there we decided seasonings, in general, can make all the difference. Not namby-pamby shake or two of a seasoning, though. Wallops of seasonings.
One of our favorite salads is Bitter Greens, Carrot, and Chickpea with an amazing vinaigrette. I’ll post the entire recipe sometime this fall but give you the basics of the vinaigrette now: 2 tablespoons olive oil, 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest plus 6 tablespoons juice, 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard, 1 tablespoon minced shallot, 1/2 teaspoon ground cumin, 1/2 teaspoon ground coriander, 1/4 teaspoon smoked paprika, 1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper, 1/4 teaspoon table salt, and 1/4 teaspoon pepper. Stir those together and see if they don’t wake up almost any salad. Here's a picture of another salad I'll share this fall - Roasted Beet and Pepper Salad with Oranges and Curried Pecans. MM-mmm.
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MAYA CORRIGAN: We almost always have a green salad with dinner. Our garden plot yields fresh leaf lettuce for half the year (April, May, June, September, October, November). Garden radishes, along with store-bought cucumbers, avocados, and carrots add color and crunch to the salad. With a salad of fresh ingredients, I prefer a simple vinaigrette dressing and use it sparingly. Our lettuce bolts in the hotter months, but the garden tomatoes are a great consolation. We have a big plate of them sprinkled with fresh basil with our summer dinners.
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CLEO COYLE: Salad days are the best, Valerie, and LOL on your shout-out to my Franch Dressing recipe post. For anyone who missed it, the dressing was inspired by an episode of one of the most acclaimed crime drama series ever to have aired on television, the award-winning Breaking Bad. The Franch dressing is a combo of French and ranch dressings, and my post shares how it was used in the television episode (with a video clip), along with some fun triva on where it originated, and a recipe on how to make it (either from scratch or if using bottled dressings).
On the topic of all-time favorite restaurant salads, two come to mind. The first I still remember fondly from many (many!) years ago, when I was studying and interning as a journalist in Washington, DC. The Georgetown restaurant I went to every Friday night with my roommate Beth (also an interning journalist) served a grilled chicken salad with poppy seed dressing. Only recently have I found the right combo of ingredients to mimic that amazing dressing, and I’ll be sharing it in the future. My second favorite salad was one I enjoyed here in NYC, a Buffalo chicken salad with blue cheese dressing. So good. And I agree with you, Valerie, reproducing a restaurant’s dish is not always easy, but we foodie nerds think it's fun to try! ~ Cleo
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Readers: What are your favorite salads or salad ingredients? Let us know in the comments. Include your email address, and you will entered to win these five fabulous mysteries!
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by Valerie Burns
A Poisonous Palate
by Lucy Burdette
Mischief Nights Are Murder
by Libby Klein
Honey Roasted
by Cleo Coyle
Come Shell or High Water
(audiobook) by Molly MacRae
Wednesday, August 7
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