Salads are not only healthy, but they are also easy to make. Once you have decided on your ingredients (see last post), you have a number of options to explore. The basic option is to just eat the salad right when it is prepared; this is the simplest and makes the most sense for most occasions. You can also set it in the refrigerator for an hour or so to chill it a little first. However, there are some other options you may want to explore..
An obvious cheat for those that want to spend some time making a salad but do not want to fix it every day is to fix a large salad, put in the fridge, and take it out as needed. This allows you to create a salad with all of the fixings you wish and take some time doing it. If you do do this, you can put pretty much any of the meat and vegetable parts together, but keep out the bread parts (such as the croutons) and dressing until you need them; the croutons will turn soggy quickly and the dressing will cause the lettuce to wilt faster. Keep in mind also that this can cause the lettuce to wilt faster, so it's best if you only fix it for the next three days or so.
The other option is to pickle the salad. Start with a basic oil and vinegar dressing recipe, but take out the oil and add in a tablespoon of sugar. Not an ideal solution for a diabetic, but it does keep the salad fresher for a few days and gives you an additional option. This really works out well if yoiu add some large red onion rings to the salad, but you may wish to omit meat ingredients, although fried tofu does still work. You may also wish to omit croutons (or equivalent) in order to avoid sogginess. Note that you can do with Caesar salad dressing as well, especially if you use Romaine lettuce as your base.
The last option is, well, stir fry. This works rather well for most salads, especially those with a lot of different ingredients. Keep out the dressing and croutons, and stir the salad into an oiled pan (or, better yet, a wok) at medium heat, and then mix your choice of soy sauce or sesame seed oil into it. You don't need much; a tablespoon should be more than enough unless you want some flavor, then maybe two tablespoons. You actually want to wilt the lettuce a little bit, and combine with chunky meat, such as fried hambburger, fried tofu, or even some micorwaved nuggets. Serve on either chow mein noodles or rice, and you have a great little dinner.
That should give you about five different ways to serve a salad: prepped, pickled, stir fried, regular, or even chilled. Combined with all of the different ways there are to make a salad, and you should have fun experimenting!
An obvious cheat for those that want to spend some time making a salad but do not want to fix it every day is to fix a large salad, put in the fridge, and take it out as needed. This allows you to create a salad with all of the fixings you wish and take some time doing it. If you do do this, you can put pretty much any of the meat and vegetable parts together, but keep out the bread parts (such as the croutons) and dressing until you need them; the croutons will turn soggy quickly and the dressing will cause the lettuce to wilt faster. Keep in mind also that this can cause the lettuce to wilt faster, so it's best if you only fix it for the next three days or so.
The other option is to pickle the salad. Start with a basic oil and vinegar dressing recipe, but take out the oil and add in a tablespoon of sugar. Not an ideal solution for a diabetic, but it does keep the salad fresher for a few days and gives you an additional option. This really works out well if yoiu add some large red onion rings to the salad, but you may wish to omit meat ingredients, although fried tofu does still work. You may also wish to omit croutons (or equivalent) in order to avoid sogginess. Note that you can do with Caesar salad dressing as well, especially if you use Romaine lettuce as your base.
The last option is, well, stir fry. This works rather well for most salads, especially those with a lot of different ingredients. Keep out the dressing and croutons, and stir the salad into an oiled pan (or, better yet, a wok) at medium heat, and then mix your choice of soy sauce or sesame seed oil into it. You don't need much; a tablespoon should be more than enough unless you want some flavor, then maybe two tablespoons. You actually want to wilt the lettuce a little bit, and combine with chunky meat, such as fried hambburger, fried tofu, or even some micorwaved nuggets. Serve on either chow mein noodles or rice, and you have a great little dinner.
That should give you about five different ways to serve a salad: prepped, pickled, stir fried, regular, or even chilled. Combined with all of the different ways there are to make a salad, and you should have fun experimenting!
No comments:
Post a Comment