When you think of salad, you might think of bland iceberg lettuce, an abandoned sliver of tomato, a few shreds of carrots and a lumpy dressing. With a little effort, you can make your salad more interesting easily and come up with some great twists on old recipes.
Instructions
1. Go nuts! Add nuts to your favorite salad. Not only are nuts healthy and vitamin rich, but they also provide the "crunch" that so many people miss when they eat a salad. It should be noted that nuts are have a high fat content. While it is "good fat," use them sparingly to avoid a high calorie salad. Consider chopping them to spread out the flavor. Also use different kinds of nuts, peanuts, walnuts, pistachios and different preparations of nuts; roasted, candied or seasoned.
2. Add fruit. Many people don't think of fruit in a vegetable salad, but there's no reason you can't add strawberries, blueberries or raspberries to your greens. Also add dried fruit. The burst of flavor is a nice contrast to the usual crisp lightly flavored vegetables found in your usual salad.
3. Try meat. Meats and cheese make salad a little more calorific, but go a long way in adding flavor. Add a nice piece of salmon over greens, or grilled chicken on a bed of arugula. Create fun recipes by adding meat. Also try cutting the meat into smaller pieces to spread it out. This will save calories, but add flavor.
4. Introduce herbs. Fresh herbs such as basil, oregano, thyme, sage and mint can really have your salad bursting with flavor and make it much more interesting. Go to your local farmer's market to find the freshest of the fresh. Chop or tear the herbs and toss them right with your lettuce.
5. Roast it. Almost every kind of vegetable can be roasted. Drizzle olive oil, add salt and pepper and cook over a flame for or on your grill. The flavors will literally burst from the normally boring vegetable.
6. Heat it up. Some salads, believe it or not, are best when warm. The best example of this is a warm spinach salad or a grilled Caesar salad where the romaine lettuce is actually cooked. You can have a hot sandwich, why not a hot salad?
Tags: flavor nice, more interesting, your salad