“A salad is not a meal. It is a style”. Sometimes they are a true treat- a wholesome lunchtime salad with hard-boiled eggs or with chicken, make a meal.

Boring salads were the thing of the past. A bowl of greens shouldn’t only be the iceberg lettuce, a few tomatoes, and a sliced carrot or cucumber. A salad should be something delectable, incredibly delicious, satisfying and desirable.

You can get your creative juices flowing and turn boring salad to a delicious masterpiece with flavour and ingredients combined correctly. It would be indeed, a life-changing revelation to learn that simple dressing combined with an exotic variety of textures and flavours that can turn a simple side-dish into a scrumptious meal.

It can be a form of art, one that is versatile and flexible as you want it to be. It can be one of your favourite items to be brought to potlucks. All you need to do is follow your taste-bud and learn to mix ingredients together in a way that the end result is most delectable, creating a magic in your mouth.

Here’s how to make a perfect salad that’s far from bland or boring. Sound like a deal?

Choose the Freshest

Farm fresh ingredients that are in-season are going to taste 100 times better than frozen and previously cut veggie or fruit. The top pick for your ingredients would be particularly from local farms or farmers markets. When you shop from local market, you’re getting the freshest and most seasonal food. Try growing some fresh veggie in your backyard. Seriously, it would reflecting the taste.

Make Homemade Salad Dressing

A salad dressing will take your bowl of greens to a whole new level. For this reason, it is recommended making your own dressing. Most of the time, store-brought salad dressings are far from real foods. They are made with preservatives and even artificial colours and flavours. On the other hand, homemade salad dressings are heaven. They just taste better than anything you’ll find in a store! Homemade vinaigrette is fresh and easy to customize. Once you get the basic ingredients—you can customize your dressing. That’s it!

Dry Your Greens

Do you want soggy greens? Of course not! It’s important that you have thoroughly dried up your greens when making a salad. Due to the water added content in your salad, the dressing taste bland. Make sure to thoroughly dry your greens before tossing them with the rest of the ingredients and dressing.

Make a Base with Fresh Greens

Consider the leafy greens as the base of your green salad. A few options include:

· Romaine lettuce

· Green and red leaf lettuce

· Baby spinach

· Arugula

· Watercress

Veggies

Veggies will add texture to your green salad. The tomatoes and cucumbers are lovely, but think beyond just these ingredients. Try adding different veggies to your goodness bowl and think about mixing and matching colourful veggies to make it striking. A few options include:

· Fennel

· Celery

· Carrots

· Cucumbers

· Tomatoes

· Snap peas

· Radishes

· Green onions

Microgreens, Sprouts, or Fresh Herbs

This is a nice addition to your salad. But this category of greens should be used in limitation than the lettuce and other leafy greens. Microgreens and fresh herbs offer a ton of flavour with all the goodness. Think about adding chopped fresh herbs, such as:

· Mint

· Parsley

· Basil

· Chives

Adding Extra Crunch

When it comes to giving your salad a crunch, lots of things can be included into this broad category. It may include anything you may want to give that extra crunch. If you add crunchy veggies to your salad, you may not add any other thing for that crunch. But if everything you’ve added is very soft and leafy, you may want to add some extra crunch for the variety of taste. Try adding nuts and seeds to give your salad crunchy and earthy flavour.

Protein

For a wholesome salad that serves a complete meal, think about adding a good amount of protein. This may include:

· Smoked salmon

· Tuna

· Ground beef

· Shredded or sliced chicken

· Home-cooked bacon

· Hard boiled eggs

· Cheese

Salt and Pepper

Before we move to salad dressing, it’s important to add salt and pepper. Adding a couple of pinches of salt and pepper to your salad before dressing will give that extra zing that everybody would love to. So it’s not just a flavour enhancement, but a great source of minerals as well.

Customized Salad Dressing

Now it is the final stage of our salad making, and it’s time for some good home-made dressing. It is already recommended to make your own dressing, but don’t you make anything complicated. Try to keep it simple.

To sum up, there’s no hard and fast rule to make a salad. The key is to experiment with ingredients and let your creativity do the wonder. As you begin creating perfect salads, using a variety of ingredients, you will find flavours you love. It is something to be adventurous and experimental. Be sure to start with lots of greens and add sweetness, crunchiness, and homemade dressing, and your creation will surely keep people coming back for more.

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