Salads can be different - meat, vegetable, fish, fruit… It’s impossible to list all the salad recipes, the ingredients can be easily changed, thereby you can create an infinite number of options. Remember Olivier: some people add peas, some people don’t; some people love meat or beef tongue, others prefer a salad with chicken; some people like fresh cucumbers, others prefer pickles; there’s also Olivier with apples, did you know? And all these are different dishes!
When preparing a salad, don’t forget about a dressing. Mayonnaise salad is a great option, but sometimes you may want something lighter - then add olive oil, it perfectly smoothes the rich taste of other ingredients such as, for example, arugula. And if you want to add a nutty aftertaste - add sesame or walnut oil. A salad dressing would be incomplete without a slight sourness - citrus juice or vinegar can cope with this task. You can read more about salad dressings in here.
When coming up with an unusual salad recipe, turn on your imagination! I'll tell you how I do it. If you want something hearty - then prepare a salad with meat, take a beef tongue, it goes well with something spicy. You can, of course, add spice to a salad dressing, such as mustard, but sometimes you may want something interesting, something that adds texture and color - let’s take the arugula. The spice of arugula and the hardness of the leaves can perfectly smooth something juicy and sweet; an orange is suitable for this, the main thing is to peel it. I want to dilute the sweetness with something salty - so I take Parmesan or any other long-aged cheese, they will definitely cope with this task. It’s still not balanced enough - there are too many heavy ingredients, let’s put a little more arugula and dilute its rich taste with avocado, or cherry tomatoes with mozzarella, or iceberg lettuce. Thick, tender avocado flesh and iceberg lettuce don’t only add even more colors, but they also balance the salad, so I choose this option. Hooray! The salad is ready!
But what about a salad dressing? The salad is very rich, hearty and bright, which means that the dressing should be light, neutral in color, with sourness. In order not to spoil the appearance - we won’t use balsamic vinegar. Lemon juice will add a slight sourness, it will also smooth the sweetness of the orange and prevent the avocado from darkening. We take the oil as neutral as possible so that it’s combined with a weak acid - an olive one. We put all the ingredients for dressing in a jar, add a little salt, shake and voila, the salad is ready!
In this section, I’ve tried to collect recipes for making my favorite salads. They are very different: there are hearty ones with meat, there are light ones with berries, there are classic ones. I hope you’ll enjoy the salads made according to these recipes or, at least, they’ll inspire you to create your own recipes.
