I have a story for you about salad. One of my students, let’s call him Bob, told me
that he’s been trying to recreate a salad he had in a restaurant with no luck. He even
asked the restaurant for a recipe. Of course the restaurant told him there is no recipe.
All the ingredients are right there in front of you. See, tomatoes, cucumbers, onions,
lettuce and it’s all dressed with lemon juice and olive oil. But Bob was convinced
that there was a secret ingredient they weren’t telling him about, so he asked me. If this
is not your first time watching my channel, you probably know what that secret ingredient
is, right? Yup, salt. When I told him, Bob was shocked. After class, he went home and
made the salad again, this time with more salt and Eureka. That was it! It was the salad
of his dreams. By the way, do you know the origin of the word salad? It comes from the
Latin word for salt. Yeah -- salt is the most important ingredient in any salad. Not using
enough or using too much is the first rookie mistake of salad making.
Ok, let’s go through a leafy green salad step by step.
If you are getting your leafy greens from a supermarket and the box says that they were
already washed, there is no need to wash them again. If you want to be really good, you
might want to dump that salad onto a clean counter and remove any rotten leaves. This
will make the rest of your box last longer. Wipe out the box and put the salad greens
back in. I only do this if I need the greens to last longer than a couple of days. Most
of the time, I just try to use them up quickly. Now these beauties here are not from a supermarket.
They are from a local farm, so I had to wash them 3 times to get rid of all the dirt. Then
I spun them in my salad spinner in small batches to get them as dry as possible. The second
rookie mistake of salad making is using wet lettuce. This dilutes your dressing and produces
a soggy salad. To remove the last bit of moisture, I wrap my lettuce in paper towels and then
put it into a container (or a salad spinner) for at least a few hours and up to a few days.
Obviously store it in the fridge. I do this with all my leafy greens as soon as I bring
them home. This way they are ready to go whenever I need to use them.
Let’s coat a pita in a bit of oil and toast it until crispy. I love to use bread in my
salads. It’s a perfect way to soak up that delicious veggie juice. If you want, sprinkle
some zaatar mix on top. It’s a mix of mint, thyme, sumac, and sesame seeds. I buy mine
on amazon and will link to it below. Put into a preheated 350F oven for 6-7 minutes or until
crispy. It doesn’t always puff up like this. That’s not important. You just want it to
turn crispy. Cool your pita, and chop it up.
Other veggies I have for us today are cucumbers, tomatoes, and radishes. For any firm veggies
like radishes, I like to use a mandoline. Please wear a cut resistant glove with the
mandolines. Sorry I forgot this time. I’ll link to it below. As always, do as I say,
not as I do.
Ok, let’s make the dressing. I’ll start with 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. Yes, it needs
to be freshly squeezed. If you don’t want to squeeze a lemon, use vinegar. You can make
a vinaigrette out of pretty much any vinegar. To help our acidic ingredient and oil hold
together, we’ll need 2 tsp of Dijon mustard. This is also a good opportunity to add salt
because it doesn’t dissolve in oil. Now that everything is dissolved, slowly drizzle
in the olive oil while whisking constantly. It doesn’t need to be a continuous stream.
If you have a hard time controlling your pour. Pour a little, and whisk until incorporated,
then pour a little more. I like a very tangy vinaigrette, so I only use 2 Tbsp of olive
oil for 1 Tbsp of lemon juice. You might need a little more oil if using vinegar since vinegar
is more aggressive than lemon juice.
By the way, salt is totally optional in the dressing. You could certainly hold it back
and add it straight to your salad. The reason I like it in the dressing is that I don’t
measure anything for salads. Don’t worry, I measured it all very carefully for you,
this time, but in real life, I just taste and adjust. In order for me to taste the dressing
and figure out if it’s good or not, I need salt, so I add it right upfront. You can always
add more salt to your salad if the salt in the dressing ends up not being enough. Keep
in mind that the salt I am using is diamond crystal kosher. It’s very unsalty because
its crystals have a very low density. If you are using a different salt type including
morton’s kosher, you’ll need way less volume of salt.
Grab one of your veggies, dunk it into the dressing and taste. If you find the acidity
too strong, add a bit more oil. I think it’s great! This emulsion is short lived. Our dressing
will separate as it sits, so we’ll need to re-whisk it before dressing the salad.
Leafy greens are the only type of salad for which a smooth, creamy emulsion is necessary.
If I was dressing a cole slaw or a tomato cucumber salad, I could just give it a squirt
of lemon or vinegar and a few glugs of oil. But the leafy greens taste a lot better to
me with an emulsified dressing.
Another must have ingredient we need to talk about is an onion. I put some form of onion
into all my salads. It gives them wonderful pungency. It could be a red onion, or scallions,
or shallots. If you want something super mild, try vidalia. I would stay away from yellow
onions. They are too strong for a salad. Whatever onions you use, need to be cut very thinly.
Big chunks of onion can be overwhelming. If you find that even thin pieces are too strong
for you, try putting them into the dressing for a few minutes before dressing your salad.
Salt and acidity will really tone them down.
Ok, we have all our ducks in a row and it’s time to dress the salad. If you are using
lettuce, arugula, herbs or any other delicate leafy greens, you have to serve the salad
immediately after dressing. Seriously, you have 5 minutes before everything starts to
wilt. Please don’t put out this kind of delicate salad for a self-serve buffet sort
of meal. There are a gazillion salads that work well in that situation. Cabbage salad,
kale salad, cauliflower salad, but not baby greens. Baby lettuces need to be eaten right
away.
The next rookie mistake is not using a big enough bowl. This one will hold 4 appetizer
portions or 2 entree portions. Small bowls result in unevenly dressed salad and bruised
leafy greens. I want to handle my leafy greens as little as possible, so I like to put everything
heavy into the bottom of the bowl and dress that first.
Let’s keep some dressing back. We can always add more, but we can’t take it out.
A few grinds of black pepper.
In go our pita chips. Let’s separate all those radishes. Yes, your hand is the best
tool for this job. Most restaurant kitchens wouldn’t dream of mixing a delicate green
salad with utensils. Now we can put our lettuce on top, give it a tiny drizzle of dressing,
and toss it gently, but thoroughly. Some of my students are shocked that restaurants touch
their food like this. May I remind you how those cucumbers got sliced? That’s right.
If you don’t want people touching your food, stop eating out.
Taste it for salt and acidity. How to add salt is kind of obvious. But what if you need
more acidity and you ran out of dressing. Don’t panic, you can give your salad a little
squirt of lemon and mix it in. This salad is like Mary Poppins, practically perfect
in every way, but it will only be that perfect for a few minutes, so let’s plate it up
and eat. If you ever wondered how restaurants get their salads to look tall and fluffy,
that’s how. They use their hands.
You might be wondering how did I know how much dressing to make.
Gut feel. Try this. Make the same amount of salad 7 days in a row and by the 8th day,
you’ll know exactly how much dressing you’ll need. A good rule of thumb with salads is
to make a bit more dressing than you think you’ll need, but be stingy when using it.
You can always add more, but you can’t take it out.
Here are more thought provoking culinary videos for you to check out and if you are ever in
the Boston area, maybe I’ll see you in one of my classes.