Question of the Day, Friday, February 20

Good morning! And Happy Friday!

Let's talk about salads! So many kinds of salads, from a salad of greens to a tossed salad to potato salad. Pasta salad. I love them all. 

What's your favorite salad? Favorite greens to use in a salad? How about your favorite salad dressing? Do make it from scratch or is it from a bottle? If it's from scratch, would you care to share your recipe? Tell me about your salad!

We eat salads almost every day. My favorite salad green is arugula - I can't seem to get enough of it! I eat it plain, too. 

For years, I searched for a salad dressing that I would like, with no success. It became much more difficult when the dairy allergies in the family were discovered (husband and daughter), since most bought dressings have dairy in them, usually parmesan cheese for some reason.

I make our salad dressings fresh now, it takes only a couple of minutes. Sometimes I make enough for a couple of days, but still small batches.

I switch it around a lot. With a pork roast the other day, I added fresh raspberries smashed in a little sugar, and used a red wine vinegar and it was great.

To make a fresh vinaigrette, I use 1/3 part vinegar substance: apple cider vinegar, wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, lemon or lime juice, or any combination of them.

For the other 2/3, I use olive, canola, avocado, or any combination.

I always add some sea salt, and a bit of mustard and shake it all up. Sometimes I add garlic or a few fresh herbs from the garden. I love this vinaigrette, bottled stuff doesn't compare.

We hardly eat salads, although we like them.  My BF has problems eating them due to dental issues.  

When we do though, arugula is big in our house also.  It's one of the few greens I can eat with very little dressing - I love the peppery flavor of it even alone.  I use it in fritattas, as a layer under salmon when baking it, all kinds of ways other than salad.

I think for the most part the reason I don't eat quite as many is due to the quality of the greens.  Unless you're buying them fresh from the grocer, I find most commercial restaurants don't get it fresh enough for my liking.  I also dislike commercial dressings so really, unless it's at home - not happening for the most part.

BTW, one of my fav salads is an arugula and peach salad, with a chive dressing.  If you wait until peaches are uber ripe in summer, this is a truly inspired way to eat both the fruit and lettuce together. 

Edit:  Fav way to dress salad is good quality extra virgin olive oil, with a little bit of balsamic vinegar.

And, here's the recipe for the arugula peach salad.

http://www.bonappetit.com/recipe/arugula-and-peach-salad-with-creamy-chive-vinaigrette

My favorite salad has always been loose leaf green lettuce mixed with fresh spinach, radishes, green onions, cucumber, and tomatoes all from the garden. Top it off with vinegar and oil!

I love a tossed salad with Blue Cheese dressing.  Also love home made potato salad which my sister makes. 

We eat salads every day, made with a big variety of greens/vegetables. My favorite is fresh spinach salad with yogurt dressing (made from fresh yogurt and a packet of pre-mixed herbs and spices).

I love spinach salad's with Yogurt Garlic dressing. Also like the sweet Kale salad as well.

We've gotten into salads fairly recently and try to eat one every dinnertime now. I'm also really into making my own dressings. I even went out and got fancier Mason jars to store them in.
We eat a lot of kale and raw broccoli salads. Also like mesclun mix with some chopped peppers etc, and raw beet salad, and potato salad - either creamy or with vinaigrette. I try to use a lot of nuts and seeds too as this is a perfect way to incorporate them into your diet.

One of my fave dressings is from a raw food cookbook:

Green Delight
1 cup olive oil (or mixture of oils such as hemp, flax, avocado or pistachio)
2 dates / 2 Tbsp honey
1 big bunch parsley leaves
4 Tbsp soy sauce
salt & pepper
3/4 cup lemon juice
4 Tbsp water (add more as needed)
1/2 cup pumpkin seeds (or mix of sunflower & pumpkin seeds)
Blend it all until smooth.
swampwitch this one is nice and creamy while still dairy free. Makes a good dip too if you add less water.

Or I'll just make a simple vinaigrette with apple cider vinegar/lemon juice, olive oil and herbs. I love fresh raw garlic in my salads!

Love salads.....My favorite is made with baby spinach leaves, cucumbers, tomatoes, bacon bits, radishes, broccoli, cheese, and alfalfa sprouts if I can find them, with Catalina dressing.

I enjoy pasta salad but a plain ol' tossed salad is all I need.

I go in spurts with salads.  I will eat them every day for awhile then I won't have one for awhile.  My favorite when strawberries are fresh is a salad with baby spinach, strawberries, red onion, crumbled blue cheese, pecans and poppy seed dressing.  I get the Marzetti's bottled poppy seed dressing.

Vegetarian ceasar salad! 

I just love salad with lettuce and ranch dressing and cheese.

We eat salads all the time. Buy mixed greens from Costco, which is delicious. Favorite all time is a Caesar salad. Lots of times it's our dinner --- salad with tuna fish or chicken salad. Hardly ever have a meal without a salad on the side.

Spinach salad with tomatoes, boiled egg, grated cheese, and mushrooms, with Catalina dressing and a glass of Coca Cola!

Fruit salad.

I love Chicken ,egg salads the best

My standard is usually a simple romaine, w/ tomatoes, cucumber, red onion, sometimes avocado, & Italian dressing. I like Kens light northern Italian dressing. I also love the crunchy onions, or croutons on it for more texture.    

My newest favorite though is the Mexi-cali salad I got from Trader Joes. Its so good! It has avocado, black beans, corn, cheese, peppers. etc.. & the dressing is so yummy, I think it's a cilantro avocado, jalapeno,

but it's a little too spicy for me, so when I get home, I smash up 1/2 an avocado & mix it w/ the dressing to calm it down.

Just this week, I bought a new dressing at walmart in the produce section. It's one by Bolt house. It's an avocado, cilantro yogurt dressing. I thought, this is So good, & familiar, then I remembered it tasted like the one that came w/ the T.J.'s salad minus the heat,  so I duplicated the salad at home w/ chicken for dinner the other night  (can't remember if the T.J's one had chicken,) & it was so good!!  

I like salad, but seldom make it. I do always have a pint of grape tomatoes and some fresh baby spinach in the fridge, and eat those mixed into a (hot) pasta dish.

I often make pasta salad for parties, and everyone loves it. I'm ashamed to admit that it starts with a boxed mix: Suddenly Salad's ranch and bacon. I cut back on the amount of mayonnaise it calls for, and sub ranch dressing. I also cook and add green peas and some more bacon bits, and paprika. I feel like such a fraud...

To redeem my cooking street cred, here's a salad, with homemade dressing that we really like:

DRESSING: 

2 TBL reduced-fat mayonnaise

2 TBL buttermilk

2 TBL minced fresh dill

2 tsp lemon juice (fresh is best)

2 tsp coarse Dijon mustard

1/8 tsp salt

1/9 tsp freshly-ground pepper

Mix all of the above in a LARGE SERVING BOWL (you will add the salad greens to this bowl)

SALAD:

1 package (5 oz.) baby greens or Mesclun leaves (I use a Spring mix-type bagged mix)

2 c. red and yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

1 medium cucumber, peeled, halved seeded and thinly sliced (or don't bother peeling the silly thing!)

1/2 ripe avocado, cut into 1/4 inch chunks

1/2 small red onion, chopped

Add the greens to the dressing, and mix well.

Makes 4 servings.

As for bottled dressings, I love Ken's Sweet Vidalia Onion.  Recently, I made a wilted baby spinach leaf "salad" with it.  I washed the spinach, but didn't let it dry all the way, I just shook off the excess water, and microwaved it for about 1-2 minutes, or until it's slightly wilted. I then tossed it with the Ken's dressing, and added applewood-smoked bacon bits. If I weren't so lazy, I would've used real, cooked bacon bits, but, hey, Dollar Tree had Bacos-brand bits for a mere $1, so I had a ton of those (I use them in a pasta dish which is my favorite meal). I sprinkled it with Parmesan cheese (the dry stuff).

margecat
I also make a cheat pasta salad. It's suddenly salad classic to the dressing directions I add extra 1/2 tsp olive oil and 2 tsp red wine vinegar. To this salad I add sliced black olives, diced cukes, tomatoes, red peppers and shredded carrot. It's been a hit at family BBQ's.

i crave salads, tossed salads or any kind with fresh veggies, because i don't get them often. soon i'll have transportation to be able to go grocery shopping on my own. but for the past 3+ years i've been very limited because i've only been able to grocery shop once every two months/7-10 weeks. i didn't bother buying salad making veggies, because they only stay fresh/edible for such a short time. i'm very much looking forward to adding fresh tossed salads to my meal plans, as well as being able to stop at some of the many farm stands and the local produce auction and farmer markets.

my favorite salad greens are iceberg lettuce with some baby spinach mixed in. though, i can be adventurous and try greens i hadn't eaten before. for tossed salads i like to add tomatoes, carrots, celery, (i love) radishes, sweet peppers, and very thinly sliced red onion. but i'm happy to add diced or sliced summer squash or zucchini, cooked beets, or other veggies too. i rarely buy cucumbers because they go bad so very quickly.

i've never made homemade salad dressings, but i think i'll start making them at least sometimes.

i do make egg salad and tuna salad often during the warmer/hot months. i like to add a little shredded asiago cheese into my egg salad, it's very tasty. i also occasionally make chicken salad, sometimes adding fresh diced apples to it. i make potato and macaroni salads sometimes, and i love a fresh homemade cole slaw (so very different and much better than store bought cole slaw).