A salad is one of those meals that hits different at a restaurant versus at home. But it is possible to make restaurant quality salads in the comfort of your kitchen. Here are some of our best tips and tricks for making seriously scrumptious salads that will have you craving vegetables. Yes, believe it.
- Focus on quality ingredients. Wilted greens and browning avocados have no place in your perfect salad (save those for your smoothies!). This is where you’ll want to use fresh, in-season produce, if available. There’s something extra special about a green salad topped with sliced peaches in the summertime or a beet and pomegranate salad during the winter season.
- Pump up the texture and color. We eat with our eyes so be sure to add plenty of colorful, fiber-filled fruits and vegetables to your leafy green or grain base. Radishes, carrots, apples, and berries are all great choices. You can also prep some of these ingredients in advance to make for easy salad assembly throughout the week.
- Think outside the box. While a typical garden salad is safe, it’s not something that people tend to crave. Elevate the flavor profile of your salads by adding one or two star ingredients. These may require, but a little bit of extra effort but will be the ultimate salad game changers. This can include pickled onions, a dollop of simple homemade dip, roasted garbanzo beans, or roasted walnuts, which leads us to…
- Add some crunch. From a nutrition standpoint, we recommend incorporating nuts or seeds into your daily diet for their health benefits. Sprinkled into salads, they add texture and richness to ground the lighter ingredients.
- Make the dressing yourself. We’ve said it before and we’ll say it again: store bought salad dressings don’t hold a candle to homemade versions. Sure, bottled dressings are easy and convenient. But thankfully, with your nutribullet® and magic bullet®, homemade ones are, too.
Here are 3 of our favorite salad dressings that will help to transform your salads from blah to ta-da!
Raspberry Vinaigrette. A delightful, tangy little dressing that adds pop and pizzazz to any mix of fresh greens.
Cucumber Dill Dressing. We’re obsessed with this fresh, bright, creamy dressing. Drizzle it over salads, grain bowls, salmon, chicken, falafel…basically anything you want to taste more delicious (which is pretty much everything).
Honey Mustard Dressing. Once you try and taste this homemade dressing, you may never reach for the bottled stuff again.
