Best Salad Ever (My Most Requested Salad Recipe) (2024)

FAQs

What is the secret to making a good salad? ›

Season, taste, repeat

Every salad component should taste good enough to eat on its own, so season your leaves, your dressing, and your add-ins (raw veg, roasted veg, croutons, nuts, and protein), tasting for salt and acid as you go. Toss, taste, and—maybe, just maybe—season again.

Season the greens & vegetables

This also creates layers of flavor, giving your salad depth. Another way to add layers is by adding prepared ingredients to your salad like pickles, marinated or grilled veggies, or anything brined, like olives or capers.

Ranch Dressing

The ranch is hands down America's most beloved salad dressings. It is made from a number of ingredients such as buttermilk, mayonnaise, mustard, garlic, onion, chives, salt, and pepper. A creamier and richer version often features sour cream or yogurt for enhanced taste.

Best: Spinach or Kale Salad

They have the most nutrients. Case in point: Kale and spinach have over 10 times more immune-boosting vitamins A and C than iceberg lettuce.

Fresh Herbs

Herbs are the leaves, seeds or flowers of plants that can add flavor or fragrance to your dishes. Popular fresh herbs to add to salads or salad dressings include basil, mint, rosemary, parsley, sage and cilantro. Herbs not only add flavor but may also provide various health benefits.

Restaurants use really good ingredients.

Your ingredients can decide whether your salad turns out average or extraordinary, Jamie Simpson, executive chef liaison at The Chef's Garden, told Allrecipes. "Restaurant-quality salads start with restaurant-quality ingredients," he said.

Lettuce actually needs a good amount of airflow, in addition to a bit of moisture (but not too much!), in order to stay crisp. That's why restaurants store their lettuce in special perforated bins that allow for air circulation while it's held in the fridge.

How do you pimp up salad? ›

Add some crunch: think beans, cauliflower, carrot, celery, cucumber, radish, sprouts or onion. 3. What's your protein: even if your salad is an accompaniment to a meal, there's still a place for protein. Try quinoa, buckwheat or toast up some chickpeas.

Apples, pears, clementines, strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or blackberries also add a pop of color and healthy vitamins and fiber. Add herbs. Fresh herbs, like basil, parsley, chives, cilantro, mint or dill, add flavor to salads and dressings. For a spicy kick, sprinkle some red pepper flakes.

Volunteers in Romania have built a vegetable salad weighing about 19,000 kilograms, setting a Guinness World Record.

The first recordings of people enjoying salad date back to Ancient Roman times. The salads of that time were not much different than the modern-day garden salads of today. They consisted of fresh, edible herbs, lettuce, and raw vegetables, and the dressing of the time was a simple mixture of oil and salt.

Iceberg lettuce may be the most popular of all the salad greens, but it's definitely not the healthiest base you can choose.

If you haven't heard of Health Nut, you probably known them more famously as the “Kardashian salads” that they are always eating/shaking around on their show (in case you aren't a fan of the show, the Kardashians' go-to order is the Chinese chicken salad and the mango iced greentini).