Salad ideas

[OllieWinchester]

I find myself hopelessly bored with salad. I need some ideas to make my salads a little bit more interesting, generally just have some sort of mixed leaves, some chopped cherry or vine tomatoes, occasionally a bit of cucumber and some dressing. Seeing as they are a recurring feature of my meals, how can I make them a bit more exciting, rather than just being the token bit of green they are at the moment?

[bazking69]

Chuck some pasta in it? It brakes up the mundane flavour and texture well.

I'm also into using old bread/rolls to make crotons at the moment. I grill them in the oil I have left over from the jars of sundried tomatoes. Lovely.

[Bec]

Toasted pine nuts? Or if you like blue cheese, add some roquefort or such like and some walnuts. Another one is to add fresh mint in with the salad leaves to give a different flavour, this can also be nice when coupled with some spicy chicken

[Gold]

Add a mexican twist with chillies and limes.

[AMLK]

Add sun dried tomatoes, olives and a few small chunks of feta cheese

[SirClarke]

Add/mix/garnish etc with any of these things:

Get a bag of this, lovely addition to many salads: http://www.juliangraves.com/foods/seeds/omega-seed...

Also:

Beetroot
Feta or blue cheese (gorgonzola, roquefort, danish blue etc)
Red onion - love this in almost any salad
Apple - diced, sliced or grated in for flavour
Dried cranberries
Raisins
Grated carrot
Rocket
Cucumber slithers
Pinenuts or crushed cashews or pistachios
Cooked bacon
Cooked and sliced Lidl chorizo (this stuff is awesome)
Cabbage shredded - doesn't do much for me but others often like it
Fresh herbs - coriander, possibly basil, chives, mint of fennel

Plus any of the usual lettuce, toms, cucumber etc and you can amke yourself a stonking salad

[markoc]

Roast a tray of veg (shallots, cherry toms, peppers etc) with a bit of garlic and rosemary
Allow to cool
Lob some poncy lettuce on a plate.
Lob some of the cold roasted veg on top.
Crumble some goats cheese on top of that.
A few glugs of balsamic vinegar over the salad.

Job done.

[grumbledoak]

As you've found, it isn't easy to throw a nice salad together. I'd google some salad recipes and try them, being pretty exact on the quantities. For example, Caesar salad a favourite of mine.

Never forget the dressing, either.

[Landlord]

Grapes and a (Bavarian/Austrian?) smoked cheese with a lime dressing works surprisingly well.

[Mobile Chicane]

Some of my favourites:

Grated carrot mixed with a tablespoon of pink grapefruit juice, a few drops of orangeflower water and some salt.

Cubed feta cheese, cubed watermelon and a few pumpkin seeds.

Roast red peppers, frazzled chorizo, chick peas, lots of chopped flat-leaved parsley and a finely chopped preserved lemon.

I also add frazzled pancetta, caramelised red onion and mushrooms fried in butter with a bit of garlic plus a few blanched mange touts / green beans for sweetness to an otherwise bitterish bagged salad.

I generally don't dress leafy salads other than a tiny splash of balsamic. If I've got ripe juicy tomatoes and/or lots of other flavourful ingredients, I don't think anything extra is needed.

[Nolar Dog]

Stilton and pear salad is great.

[taldo]

Nolar Dog said:

Stilton and pear salad is great.

this is truly awesome, especially if its a nice strong stilton and the pear has been poached in some red wine/ star anise / cloves / sugar also works great if not a bit better with rich creamy italian blue cheese like dolcelatte.

[Google [bot]]

Bake some diced sweet potato, put with some pine nuts, feta/blue cheese and drizzle with caramlised balsamic vinegar. Mix with leaves but I think baby spinach works best. Beautiful.

[zakelwe]

I'm going to lower the tone here and suggest croutons and bacon bits.

Regards
Andy

[Nolar Dog]

taldo said:

Nolar Dog said:

Stilton and pear salad is great.

this is truly awesome, especially if its a nice strong stilton and the pear has been poached in some red wine

That's how I do mine. Always delicious.

[sleep envy]

OllieWinchester said:

some dressing

salt, extra virgin and balsamic

[Mr Gearchange]

Leaves, Crispy Bacon and Stilton with a french dressing or
Leaves, Rare Fillet Steak & Stilton or my favourite
Leaves, Sundried Tomatoes, Marinated Anchovies, Mozzeralla, Parmazan, Crispy Bacon and Reduced Balsamic

[sleep envy]

Mr Gearchange said:

Reduced Balsamic

what's that?

[Mr Gearchange]

sleep envy said:

Mr Gearchange said:

Reduced Balsamic

what's that?

Very thick, very sweet, incredibly flavouorsome balsamic.

This is the stuff that I use
http://mybelazu.com/details/balsamic-vinegar.html

It's fking awesome

[GavGav]

Our chef came up with the "breakfast salad".

Mixed leaves, tomato, bacon, chopped sausage, a poached egg with a runny yolk, and a wholegrain mustard dressing. I was very dubious, didn't think it would work at all.

It was actually fantastic. May not be everyone's thing, but I was very impressed and it sold well.