As the main salad maker in our family, my goal is to ensure we eat fresh veggies every day. A quick, mixed green salad fits the bill nicely. So why do I hesitate when it’s time to make a salad?
For me it’s the prep…washing the greens, peeling the veggies, and measuring assorted oils, vinegar and herbs. Apparently I am a lazy salad maker. Still, determined to do better, I decide to streamline my process.
All cleaning is done at one time. Vegetables are washed (check out Fruit & Vegetable Wash), then stored immediately after our weekly grocery run.
Now that everything is prepped, we are ready to assemble a salad at any time.
Salad in minutes
Ingredients
- 2 Tbl olive oil ratio of 3 to 1, olive oil to vinegar
- 2 tsp vinegar
- pinch of salt
- grind of pepper
- pinch of thyme
- handful of spring greens per person
- 1/4 cup freeze dried blueberries per person
- 1/8 cup sliced roasted almonds per person
Instructions
- Place oil, vinegar, salt, thyme in large bowl and stirvigorously until emulsified.
- Put greens, blueberries and almonds and lightly toss until coated in dressing. Serve.
I only make enough dressing for the meal at hand. The ratio of oil to vinegar is three to one: three parts oil to one part vinegar. Not every vinegar is the same strength, so “to taste” is important here.
Choose a bowl three times bigger than the salad you are making…why? Because it’s a tossed salad and this helps contain all the parts.
The dressing is mixed first. Let sit a few minutes to blend the flavors, then the greens and extra fixings are put in the bowl and it’s all tossed.
Sometimes the extras are held back and dressed on top of the salad. Depending on how heavy they are, the really heavy stuff will end up on the bottom of the mixing bowl and make distribution more troublesome.