All Day I Dream About ... Salad (cooking)
May. 22nd, 2025 11:40 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
ur_gothmomI've never thought of or described myself as a salad person. Growing up, my mother would eat a salad for supper every night that was usually made up of iceberg lettuce, insipid grocery store tomatoes, Spanish peanuts, green onions, storebought croutons, and an overly sour dressing she probably got the recipe for in a magazine in the '70s. There was usually a bottle of Creamy Cucumber and maybe a ranch or French or something in the door of the fridge. When we had company, we'd buy an Et tu Caesar salad kit and mix it up in a big bowl, which was at least tasty (the regular kind came with real bacon!) but not particularly exciting.
As an adult who can buy whatever dressings I want (even my absolute favourite, Kewpie sesame dressing), or make them more balanced to my tastes, salad has still been an afterthought. I switch between low-effort bagged salads and keeping lettuce, Lebanese cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes in the fridge and popping them in a bowl with some bottled dressing. Both result in a salad that's fine, mostly about getting vegetables into my body rather than enjoying the experience.
Enter America's Test Kitchen's tips for making better salads:
The salads I've been eating for the past few days have been so much better, it's really surprised me. Even with bagged salads or pre-made dressings, using techniques like tossing with your hands and dressing the bowl makes the final product way, way better. It's also started me thinking about salads in a different way, making me look around for stuff I have in the fridge or the cupboards that I can add that I normally wouldn't think to.
As an adult who can buy whatever dressings I want (even my absolute favourite, Kewpie sesame dressing), or make them more balanced to my tastes, salad has still been an afterthought. I switch between low-effort bagged salads and keeping lettuce, Lebanese cucumbers, and cherry tomatoes in the fridge and popping them in a bowl with some bottled dressing. Both result in a salad that's fine, mostly about getting vegetables into my body rather than enjoying the experience.
Enter America's Test Kitchen's tips for making better salads:
The salads I've been eating for the past few days have been so much better, it's really surprised me. Even with bagged salads or pre-made dressings, using techniques like tossing with your hands and dressing the bowl makes the final product way, way better. It's also started me thinking about salads in a different way, making me look around for stuff I have in the fridge or the cupboards that I can add that I normally wouldn't think to.
