I'm trying to eat healthy this year, and salads are a great ally to healthy eating! But I never have cool ideas of which salads to make at home! Do you prepare salads at home? What kind of dressings and ingredients do you use?
I think I already had answered this thread in another forum. Caesar's salad is my favorite salad although we seldom make it at home because it is laborious. First is the bacon, it should be fried to the crisp, no more, no less. Then the romaine lettuce needed to be cut in equal proportion in a size that is just right for swallowing. And croutons are hard to find here, not readily available. But in fairness to Caesar's salad, it is very cheap when made at home because it is so expensive when you order in restaurants.
I love taco salad. I make my taco salad with veggie crumbles from Morning Star. I love sour cream with it and all sorts of fresh vegetables. I use taco chips and try to get blue corn ones and plain yogurt too instead of cream cheese. Aside of taco salad I love to have tuna straight out of the can with lemon pepper with vegetables. I buy the packaged ones and try to get the ones with spinach if I can afford it.
I usually don't get too fancy with my salads when I am making them at home. They're typically a bed of romaine topped with some tomato, black olive, and cucumber, croutons and sometimes cheese. Then I will put either sliced grilled steak or chicken over them. I usually stick with Italian or Blue Cheese for dressings. Sometimes I will use a Cajun seasoning on the meat, and make it blackened chicken or steak. I also like putting shrimp on my salad, but I don't buy shrimp very often due to it being relatively expensive around here. I like Caesar salads as well, but they're not typically prepared with bacon around here. Croutons are easy to make at home with some stale bread - simply cube it up and toss in a little melted butter, garlic salt and parsley, then toast in the oven on a baking sheet. The dressing can also be made from scratch. I think it's just parmesan cheese, egg yolk, oil, anchovy, and salt and pepper to taste.
Making a salad at home is pretty much the whole package deal, but for some reason people just do not seem to do it enough. That includes myself, because I know I should have more. It is easy, cheap, healthy, tasty, light, filling ... the list goes on. I like to throw in a lot of stuff, especially chicken and egg if possible, and of course top it with some light Italian dressing.
I don't enjoy eating greens too much, therefore, I like making pasta salads. They are simple to make and are delicious. I sometimes eat pasta salads for a meal.
My new favourite salad to make at home is a Greek salad. It's super easy and tastes better the next day. I make a large bowl and my husband and I take it with our lunches over the next few days. I use grape tomatoes cut in half, cucumber and feta cheese. I make my own dressing of oil, rice wine vinegar and oregano. I love to make this salad in the summer time but it's great even in the winter although the grape tomatoes are getting quite expensive to buy.
When making my salads I usually have a method rather than specific recipes. I usually do: 2 kinds of leaves- (For example, iceberg and spinach, or romaine and kale) dried or fresh fruit- (bananas, cranberries, raisins, sliced apples) Nuts or seeds - (Cashews, sunflower seeds, slivered almonds, or walnuts) A little bit of cheese, sometimes cheddar, but usually parmesan I like to top it with a lot of cucumbers and chopped tomatoes and carrots. Occasionally I'll add croutons or tortilla strips, but I try to avoid them because they're really unnecessary and just add calories. I know that may seem like a lot, but I don't use a lot of dressing, and tend to get bored with salads easily. I'd rather eat a slightly high calorie salad, then fall off my diet and eat a bacon cheeseburger, na'am sayin'? ;P
I like to eat tomato salad; just red, round tomatoes in slices with olive oil, vinegar mixed with some lemon juice, salt to taste, and sprinkled with some Parmesan cheese. Sometimes I make a variation of this salad over a bed or romaine and top it with fresh ricotta cheese.
Oh hey I didn't even think about cold prepared salads! That sounds really good! I also like to eat cucumbers and tomatoes soaked with oil and vinegar. ☺ Alternatively I love to make chicken salad (with mayo and all, for sandwiches) especially when I put walnuts and raisins in it and eat it in a wrap with lots of romaine and tomatoes! Oh that stuff is so good! Of course, now I'm hungry!
And now you made me hungry too! LOL I have to give it a go to that chicken salad with walnuts and raisins, yum, yum
The Greek salad! Very healthy, very yummy. The ingredients are easy to find - tomatoes, bell peppers, feta cheese, cucumbers and olives. It tastes awesome with a simple dressing of olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Definitely a Fav !
I love salads, but I am a little bit boring with them so I like to keep them relatively simple. What I have in salad is: - Lettuce - Tomatoes - Pickled onions - Cucumber - Spinach - Salad cream - Sweetcorn That is all I will have, and because it is such a simple combination I will always make my own salads, as I find that the shops just don't make the salads that I need most of the time.
