Salad

Salad seems easy.  You don't have to cook it , it can be prepared quite easily but if you do a salad right, it can elevate any meal from ordinary to sublime.  You can add all sorts of vegetables into a salad, it depends on your individual tastes.  The secret of a great salad is in the aesthetics.  You eat with your eyes first - so your salad must be pleasing to look at.  Involve color and variety to interest the eye.  Then after the eyes have eaten their fill it becomes a task of pleasing the mouth.  This involves taste and texture - the more you vary the texture and taste of your ingredients the more interesting your salad will be.  Also do not soak it in dressing, in fact either let your guests dress their own salads with whatever you keep in your refrigerator or if you want to be daring - create your own.  But that is a story for another day.  So back to salad making.  Here is the basic salad.

Lettuce - I'm still a fan of iceberg - but many people will say that it is not sophisticated enough.  So here is a list of different kinds of lettuce.

• Iceberg 
• Romaine
• Butter head
• Loose leaf

Taste your lettuce - what does it taste like - what is its texture - how will it play in the symphony of flavor you are creating.

Tomatoes - your preference.

• Grape
• Cherry
• Plum
• Beef Steak

If they are large - slice them or cut them up to a comfortable size for your mouth.  

Cucumbers - seed them if you prefer,  you can peel them completely or leave them striped with skin. Seeding a cucumber is very easy.  Cut it in half length wise and then take a spoon and run it down the center and scrape out the seeds.  You can then slice the cucumber into half moons for your salad.

Olives - again a matter of taste and texture.  Go to the supermarket with an Olive bar and taste a few varieties. Do not use olives with pits - they make for awkward  eating.  If the olives are large - slice them. 

Bell Peppers - Green ones can be a little intense.  Red, Orange and Yellow play very well in salad.  Cut them into strips for your salad.  If you are truly daring you can roast your red peppers before adding them to the salad.  It changes the flavor and adds a little extra to your salad.  (You can also buy them in a jar if you feel lazy.)

Onion - Some people like them in salad - others do not - your preference.  If you add them - try to use either a sweet variety like Vidalia or use Red onions.  Slice them thinly into your salad and leave them near to the top so if your guests do not like onions they can steer clear of them.

So there is the basics of salad.  Now for the additions if you are daring.

Vegetables - you can add raw vegetables into your salad.  If you can eat them raw - you can eat them in salad.  a few options are:

• Broccoli - use the florets. 
• Asparagus - gently steamed.
• Mushrooms - any variety - taste them and see how they play in your mouth.

Fruit - yes you can add fruit into your salad.  Some of the fruits that play well in salad are:

• Grapes - white and red. 
• Citrus - Oranges, Tangerines, even Grapefruit if you are daring.

Nuts - a matter of taste - you can add whatever nuts your prefer - some suggestions are:

• Walnuts
• Cashews
• Almonds

So now that you have the components of a great salad - her are the few last things you should know to make a great salad.

• Wash and dry all your components - everything should be dry before you put your salad together - it will allow your dressing to adhere better to your salad. Invest in a salad spinner - it is worth it to have dry crisp salad.

• Layer colors, flavors, and textures to make your salad interesting.

So there you have it.   Salad made easy.   There are other variations - as many as you can think up.  I hope that you will experiment and learn to love salad as much as I do - it can become a meal in itself, healthy, satisfying and very delicious.