Smack it. Guys this is my good old friend Nick. He's one of the co-founders of Sweetgreen,
major brainiac businessman. I wanted to have you here because you're
one of the kings in the salads. And you're a great chef and foodie. -More of a solid
home cook I would say. -Like a notch above. -I would say when it comes to salads, I
can call myself a chef. -I think so. We have a hundred Sweetgreen stores. -We do,
coming this weekend, yeah. -What are the tenants of a great salad? -So I would say the most
important thing by far is starting with the best ingredients. When they come from
great farms that grew them the right way and the great and the best soil, that's
where the flavor comes from. -Are there certain salad don'ts? -One of
the only rules I kind of follow is around just making sure the salad is
balanced, whether it's texture or flavor. Make sure
there's something crunchy, something sweet, something acidic, maybe spicy.
Just making sure that your combination of ingredients is well-balanced. That I would say
is probably the only rules. -Okay. The other thing is when I go to the farmers
market, I feel kind of overwhelmed by all of these salads options. -When you're
overwhelmed you can just come into Sweetgreen. That's a good rule of thumb is to
start with one or two greens. I generally like some mix, some greens. So one that's
kind of crunchy, and one that generally is kind of spicy, like a mustard greens
or an arugula. I'm a big fan of mixing raw and cooked ingredients so making
sure there's either some roasted veg or roasted protein. -Or quinoa. -Generally
something crunchy at the end. -Okay. -Some sort of nut or seed. And so when you've
got a great set of ingredients in your bowl, then it comes down to the dressing.
And really the dressing is so key. It's where a lot of the personality of the
salad comes from. -I feel intimidated to make a salad next to you. -I'm intimidated to
make it next you.
So I'm gonna start with some little gem. -Okay. -Because that is my my favorite
lettuce of all. -I will get some red oak. -And then definitely want something spicy, so some
of these mustard greens. -Yeah, I'm gonna copy that, I love mustard greens. It's like a weird bitter spicy amazingness.
-Color is also very important so I think the better your salad looks, the better it
will taste. -Eat the rainbow, Nick, eat the rainbow. -So I'm gonna go for some of this purple kale,
because its beautiful color. -Maybe for my color, I'll go with some of the
purple cabbage. -There is also some ingredients that can be base or veggie.
Some of these raw Brussels sprouts. I love some of those so I'm gonna put some of those in.
-Okay, I will do the same. -I pretty much put fennel in almost every
salad I made. The crunch, that licorice flavor has great digestive properties. -Yep.
-Always always radish as well. -That's your base so then what's gonna be your flair?
Your salad flair? -You know I'm gonna do some squash, some delicata squash.
It has been beautifully roasted. -I think I am gonna go for some chickpeas. I love chickpea. Oops! My chickpeas have
gone rogue. -And then here we have some beautiful roasted veggies, you can grab some
carrots, turnips and fennel. I'll be one, two chicken today. And just load up on
some quinoa. -Okay. -Got some beautiful tomatoes over there. -Yeah, I think that'll be
enough for me. -It's a good-looking salad. -So Sweetgreen approved? -It is. So now
generally I will... -It looks so good! -So does yours. We can try each other salads at the end. -Okay.
-So now I generally would focus on the dressing. The dressing is really important because it
ends up being the seasoning obviously, and the flavor profile of the salad, and you
really want to complement the amazing veggies and the strong flavors you have
from the produce. -So what are you gonna do for your dressing? -Generally with the
dressings there's a certain ratio you want to hold somewhat true to. You want
one to three-ish. So one acid, three parts fat. -One to three. Acid to fat. -So
starting with some mustard, and then I'm gonna add a little bit of red wine
vinegar
-I'm gonna add some anchovy. -Shallot. And then you'd like to put a little bit of hot sauce. -Whoo! Hot sauce. -Give it a bit of
backbone. -That's very cool. -Tiny bit of sweet, so I'll add just a
little tiny bit of honey, just around all the acid. Yes. All right, and then
my favorite thing to do in salad is actually zest. I do a little bit of zest
in the dressing and then I'll finish the salad actually. -I might need to copy you on that. -This is good. Nice sweet color. What else is in yours?
Anchovy, olive oil? -Mine is anchovy, Dijon, red wine vinegar, a little bit of maple syrup,
pepper, salt and olive oil. And now your secret trick: Lemon zest. -I think
yours might be better than that. -I don't think so. I always, I am following you and your wife.
You're my, like the foodie North Stars. If you had to name your favorite
restaurants in the world that have really blown you away. -Estella in New
York. It's probably my all-time favorite restaurant. -Okay. -Squirrel here in LA, -Yes. -Felix. -Yes.
-And that achacha he makes is pretty famous. He actually made our wedding cake
out of the focaccia. -Oh my god. - So you went a little non-traditional. And
nothing beats my mom's home cooking. So I got throw that in there. -So what, what
herbs would you put on the salad? -We have some beautiful micro-cilantro here. I'm
gonna do some of this. I'm a sucker for basil so I'll probably tear a bunch of
basil into it. You can chop this up or you can just hand tear it. -Looks beautiful.
All right, here's a plate. Wow, that looks really good.
-This looks great. -Alright I'm gonna start with yours. -Please.
-Mummm. -Nice clean dressing? -Mm-hmm. Sometimes when you are lucky enough to
have ingredients this fresh, it's like you meet your body like immediately
thanks you when you start to... -It can tell the difference. -Amazing. -And even having an
arugula that's from a grocery store versus the farmers market is night and day.
-Okay. -Let's try yours. I like the dressing. -I love the anchovy. We nailed it.
-We did. Feels like that needs to make its way on the Sweetgreen menu. -I'm choking. God.
Can you imagine if I had salad on the Sweetgreen menu, I would feel like I
finally made it. Thank you so much for being here. I hope you guys enjoyed our
fantastic at home, Sweetgreen plethora of salad ingredients. It's so fun to have you.