Easy Cooking: Salad For Non-Salad People
I have a pet nutrition theory, rightfully batted down by my wife’s nutritionist friend, that most diets seem to come down to eating more vegetables. This is not to say that raw vegetables are good or even that animal fats are unambiguously bad. The WHO made a big fuss a few years ago about red meat lowering life expectancy, based on a lot of sound research as far as I can tell, but I still eat it, and have strayed from my Yankee mother’s arbitrary yet intuitively reasonable rule of a pack of cards or less a day.
So I like most people in the developed world would benefit from more salad and less of many of the other things I eat. Salad is not rocket science (at least to me, a salad caveman) so instead of trying to give you a recipe, here are some tips and tricks to make it taste good, or at least decent:
Salt and Pepper
This is the twist that consistently takes our salads over the top. Bad salad is bitter, mediocre salad is bland. But it turns out even the flavor of green leaves is worth enhancing. You can add some saltiness and umami with a grated dry aged cheese, namely parmigiano, but you might overdo it. I have found pecorino Romano is too strong.
Buy whole greens and cut them up yourself
The pre-chopped stuff is appealing, right? Get some variety, lean on some giant food company. But the thing is, it is not going to be fresh or taste as good. And it will be a lot more expensive. I made a similar discovery with mushrooms: The pre-sliced ones do not keep as long. Fresh is king for raw ingredients. We got a nice salad spinner which has been worth the money. Prep does take time but if you want to actually eat salad, it is time well-spent.
Romaine is a good place to start
Crunchy, flavorful, not bitter, and fairly easy to clean. We also like bags of prewashed baby spinach. Butter lettuce is boring and much easier for me to imagine on a sandwich than in a salad by itself. Where else will you get hot takes on lettuce?
A Bit of Acidity, A Bit of Sweetness
This genuinely tasty Lidl balsamic vinegar (if you want to call it that) was basically the key that unlocked salad for us. A squeeze or squirt of lemon juice also works. We usually dress our salads with olive oil or, for less bite and a hint of extra flavor, avocado oil, which we only got on sale because it is so expensive. Definitely worth checking out, but I warned you about the price!
