My ideal of traditional salad from grocery store ingredients

Previous Topic Next Topic
 
Posted by Radishrain Radishrain
Options
In my view, traditional salad, made from current grocery store ingredients, should be something like this:

* Lettuce-based (not spinach or fruit-based)
* Contain 0 to 1 sweet fruits, and if they are included, they should be dried, and not be so abundant as to make the salad particularly sweet

It should optionally contain any to a number of the following:
* Radishes (they're definitely under-used)
* Black olives
* Green onions
* Onions (red ones are nice)
* Carrots (sparingly)
* Cabbage (sparingly)
* Tomatoes
* Peppers
* Celery
* Cucumbers (sparingly)
* Nuts and/or seeds (don't overpower the salad with nuts, though)
* Cheese (ideally grated; cheddar and mozarella are great)
* Shredded parmesian cheese is fine
* Artificial bacon bits (not the real thing)
* Immitation crab
* Hidden Valley ranch dressing (make sure to pre-test all your ranch in advance; it's not all the same)
* Caesar dressing (but only if it tastes like the kind at Wendy's from 1998 or so, and I don't know a brand that does; I'm not sure if Wendy's Caesar dressing still tastes the same)
* Croutons (ideally small, savory ones)
* Dried cranberries (not all the time)
* Dried raisins (not all the time)
* White mushrooms
* Freshly cooked, good-tasting chicken (not cold, nor processed); as with the other ingredients this is entirely optional
* Very thin sliced ham or turkey ham might be okay
* Strawberries or brown sugar as part of a vinegar dressing (don't do this every time)
* Savory dressings you invent yourself (ideally, not vinegar, nor oil dressings)

Things to avoid in this style of salad:
* Mandarin oranges
* Avocados
* Vinegar (except on odd occasions)
* Apples
* Pears
* Plums
* Peaches
* Pickled peppers (the vinegar taste combined with the texture overpowers)
* Real bacon bits (I know you probably like them, but no)
* Spinach
* Cold, processed chicken cubes
* Adding too many thick vegetables in the same salad (e.g. cucumbers, carrots, celery, and peppers); they can overpower the lettuce and become the base
* Other fruits (although, if they're not thick or wet, there's more of a chance they might work)
* Multiple sweet fruits in the same salad. I mean, if you're already using cranberries or raisins, don't add the strawberry-vinegar dressing. the salad as a whole is supposed to be at least mostly savory.
* Multiple kinds of meat on the same salad

greens_
lettuce_
vegetable_
salad_
cooking_
Feedback, Links, Privacy, Rules, Support, About