Lemon Pantry
Just a Salad?
Salads cover a wide range of offerings, and most people have their own exposure and idea of what a salad looks, and tastes like. Creating a salad can be a daunting task of chopping dozens of ingredients, or a super quick and simple combination with fresh ingredients. We will strive to summarize a few tips, guidelines and examples for your salad journey, and look out for blog posts from some of our favs
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A helpful way to approach salads is to build your own list of ingredient options to mix it up, pun intended. Find your go-to recipe, or experiment with whatever you have on hand. There are truly no limits as to what can be thrown into the mix.
We've shared our go-to ingredients below, for both the salad mix and dressings
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Highlighted Posts:
https://www.lemonpantry.com/all-recipes/categories/salads
General Salad Tips
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Wet Greens - One of the best ways of killing a salad, usually caused by not properly drying the greens, which can keep the dressing from binding correctly.
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Flavored Vinegars - We recommend avoiding expensive flavored vinegars (like Raspberry Balsamic, Pear Balsamic), and buying high quality stock vinegars, and then adding lower priced flavored vinegars, or jams/fresh fruits to achieve the same flavor with higher quality.
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Oil based dressings. - Not every dressing requires an oil base, experiment with citrus, and keep in mind that condiments like tahini, mustard, mayo, contain an oil base.
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Herbs can really make a salad pop, or even play the main role. (Tabbouleh)
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Dress at the last minute! - Remember that dressings, especially acidic dressings start breaking down some of the finer leaf lettuce and vegetables, so you'll want to avoid adding dressing until shortly before serving.
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Don't overdress - Nobody likes a soggy overpowering salad.. Add the dressing carefully and toss and taste. Sometimes a bit of salt, pepper and a splash of lemon juice can bring life to your salad, even if it's already been dressed.
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Different Cuts- Surprisingly, chopping vegetables differently can lead to a completely different experience. (Thinly sliced carrots, radish and cucumber strips, Celery chunks vs strings) . Think of the way various pasta shapes bind to sauces.
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Dressing Texture - We recommend using a shaker first, whisk second to get nice and creamy oil-based dressing. Surprisingly, adding a touch of water to an oil based dressing can help the emulsification process. Always add the oil last when whisking.
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The following examples cover a variety of salads, with and without greens. We will add full blog posts for some of these, but our goal is to provide enough insight to make your own delicious creations.
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