How to Finally Make A Salad that Doesn't Suck...

this video is sponsored by the magic bullet kitchen express i don't know about you but when i was growing up a salad was probably the last thing i was ordering off a menu because salads were boring they look like this at least for me this is what a salad looked like and that is not exciting this is the type of food that i wanted to order this is the exciting stuff but as i got older these salad shops started popping up where you could customize your own salads and throw in those fun additions and pick that perfect salad dressing and finally salads became delicious which is great because salads are packed with nutrition but they're also great to eat for lunch i eat them all the time for lunch because they don't weigh me down and i'm a busy guy and i want to stay efficient in the day so what i'm going to be showing you today is how to create that salad shop experience in your own kitchen by giving you the proper systems you need to be able to go into your fridge go into your pantry create a really flavorful salad dressing completely from scratch and then of course build out the perfect salad but before we get into any cooking we gotta take a little field trip to where our salad journey begins so if you want to make a really good salad we're talking above average salad you gotta hunt down good ingredients quality fresh ingredients and of course the best way to do that is your local farmer's market or whatever fresh market is around you especially when it comes to sourcing good lettuce because lettuce is so perishable so the grocery stores are generally gonna have the stuff in bags or in plastic because it's gonna be able to ship across the country or wherever it's coming from and also you see the same stuff in the grocery stores the romaine the spring mix the arugula when you come to your local market you can break out of that basic lettuce world and into a new dimension of lettuce filled with all types of varieties and of course there's nothing fresher than a head of lettuce coming from a farm that's around you unless you know you're growing it yourself this is red leaf right here let's take a red leaf hello now when you get back from the market if your greens aren't cleaned well you got to clean them off and the best way to do that is a salad spinner which is a great investment if you don't have one but you can clean off your greens with just a bowl of water and some towels as well so what i like to do is take my head of lettuce and first pick off the exterior wilted or damaged greens then i start picking off each leaf individually and putting them into the bowl and once you get to the interior of the head of lettuce i usually just rip off the core which will then release all of those smaller leaves then i fill up the bowl with water until the leaves are completely submerged and then start ruffling up those greens which is going to release the dirt or the sand or whatever debris is on your greens and it's going to fall to the bottom so when you straight off that water all of the dirt or debris is going to wash away with the water and if your leaves are super dirty you might want to repeat this step one or two more times until the water is a little more clear or your leaves are looking nice and clean and then you're ready to spin so i'm going to activate my salad spinner which uses centrifugal force to spin off the excess liquid but again if you don't have a salad spinner you can just take your leaves out of the water and put them on a towel or a paper towel and just pat them dry now as far as storing your greens there's a few different techniques here my favorite is to get some type of food storage container add a paper towel to the bottom which will soak up any excess moisture that could potentially wilt your greens quicker and place those greens in the container and because there's walls and you have structure to your container this is going to protect your greens from getting damaged but when it comes to a hardier greens usually i'll just wrap those up in some paper towel and then put them in a reusable plastic bag and those are good to just go right in the fridge [Music] so the first appliance that i actually ever got in the kitchen was a mini food processor which at the time completely transformed my cooking game because it opened up the world of fresh sauces and salad dressings now this magic bullet kitchen express is the perfect all-in-one food processor and i know sometimes we want those big fancy appliances but to be honest you'll probably end up using something of this size much more often in the kitchen because it's easier to use it's easier to clean up you can just throw it right in the dishwasher it's definitely easier to store and you're probably only cooking for yourself or a few other people so you really don't need a big machine to get the job done i also really love kitchen gadgets that can perform multiple tests especially when you have a tighter kitchen and you don't want the clutter of a ton of appliances and this magic bullet kitchen express pretty much does it all you can make a smoothie in here you can chop and shred veggies but most importantly you can easily flavor blast your food by making a fresh sauce or salad dressing in here in a matter of minutes which is what you're about to learn so if you're interested in this magic bullet kitchen express head over to getmagicbullet.com so my goal when it comes to salad dressings is not to teach you how to make the perfect vinaigrette with the perfect techniques you can go to culinary school to learn that for me it's about using what you have going into the pantry going into the fridge and seeing what's available to make a dressing and to do that you need to understand balancing of flavors when it comes to sauce or dressing it's all about flavor balancing so i'm gonna make three completely unique salad dressings using my basic flavor guide to hopefully give you a little more confidence to get funky with it and use what you have in the kitchen so in round one we're gonna pick our base flavor this is the flavor that will be most prominent in our dressing and also what we're gonna build our dressing around so for dressing one i'm using some soaked cashews and if you're using nuts in a saucer dressing you always want to soak them to break down the cell walls so they emulsify in nice and smooth for dressing too i'm using some sun-dried tomatoes which are packed with umami a lot of great flavor there and then for dressing three as the base i'm using some miso paste which again is packed with umami it's a little funky it's a little sweet and a great base for any sauce or dressing now round two is all about the aromatics the herbs and the spices that are literally going to spice up your dressing and add that aroma that next layer of flavor so dressing one i'm going with some cilantro i can use the leaves and the stems two cloves of garlic and some cumin seeds for dressing too again i'm going in with a garlic clove and some parsley leaves and then for dressing three i'm using some ginger which i'm actually going to grate in to make sure i don't have any big chunks of ginger i'm also going to add some sesame oil which is a wonderful way to instantly add a sesame aroma throughout your entire dressing now round three is the sweet and spicy round which are both completely optional but this is all about flavor preference how do you want to balance your dressing for dressing number one i'm going in with some smoked paprika for dressing number two just a little bit of honey to sweeten it up and then for dressing number three that miso paste is already a bit sweet so i'm going in with a little bit of chili paste to spice it up now round four is that acidic element which is mandatory you need that acid to really make your salad dressing pop for dressing one i'm going in with the juice of one whole lime which is really gonna pair nicely with those mexican flavors like the cilantro and the cumin for dressing too i'm going in with the juice of one lemon but you want to make sure you strain out the seeds of the lemon because if you start blending up some lemon seeds you're going to be adding a lot of additional bitterness that you probably don't want in your dressing and then for dressing three i'm going to build off all those asian flavors and go in with some rice vinegar now dressing is used to season other raw ingredients so it needs to be heavily seasoned to make an impact i'm gonna season the first two dressings with salt and for the third dressing that miso paste is plenty salty so i'm gonna hold off on adding extra salt until i give it a taste [Music] now round four is your oil or your fat element which again is essential for dressing you need that oil element to really bring your dressing together to give it a little more of that mouth feel to give it some creaminess so for dressing one i'm gonna go in with some avocado oil dressing too since i've got more italian or mediterranean flavors i'm going to use some olive oil and finally for dressing 3 i'm just going to use a neutral canola oil because it's already so flavorful now the last round of the adjustments which are so important whenever you're making any sauce or a dressing you gotta be tasting it to see where you stand to see how those flavors balance and i would just say to trust yourself give it a taste and just think for a second trust that your palate knows what this dressing needs spice is good do i have another lime if i have another lime i'll probably squeeze in half a lime could use a little more acidity and just a little bit more salt and i think we're perfect looks super creamy a little thick i'll probably add some water let's give it a taste though [Music] i like that one i think i nailed that one on the first shot so just a little bit of water to thin it out [Music] so obviously we'll need some water in there it's on the thicker side but let's taste for seasoning salty enough good spice definitely definitely needs to be thinned out i think it's missing a little sweetness i thought the miso would be sweet enough this is a younger miso which is pretty sweet but it needs some sweetness you know what i actually think i was gonna add mirror into this and i forgot and that's what it needs a little bit of mirin will have a nice sweetness a little more of that acidic kick from the mirror as well that's nice for salad dressing sample so much better less intense with the water of course put the mirror in all about balance all about balance when you're making a sauce or a dressing i think the reason more people don't eat salads is because traditionally salads are made up of a lot of greens or veggies and that's a little boring at least for me that's not motivating enough to eat more greens and veggies the key is to camouflage those greens and veggies and almost trick yourself into eating more of them by making this a complete dish by adding all of these other elements that make your salad fun and of course the options are endless you can put anything in your salad but like i did for the dressing i made a system to help you build out your salad step by step to actually make it more enjoyable to eat i'm gonna make two different salads using this system and the first element is of course your base greens so for salad one i'm going in with some butter lettuce that i got at the market and if the leaves are super small you can toss those in whole or if the leaves are bigger you can chop those up however you want and i'm also going to use some kale that i'm finely chopping and then for the basis salad too i'm using this green i got at the market i actually don't know the name of it and then some more butter lettuce now the next round is all about your fresh veggies what are those heartier veggies that will complement those greens for salad one i'm gonna add some sprouts and then i'm gonna take a carrot and what i like to do is take a peeler and you get these nice shaved pieces that not only look sexy in your salad but they also give it some really nice texture and i'm also going to chop up some fresh radish and get that in the mix [Music] and for salad 2 i've got some corn and i'm going to shave it right off the cob because it's super juicy and sweet at least for the corn around here on the east coast and then i'm gonna add some sliced cucumbers as well now round three is where you can add some of those pantry elements that you might have hanging around like nuts or seeds or dried fruit that could add a little textural element a little saltiness a little sweetness so for salad one i'm going in with some raisins and for salad two i'm going in with some sunflower seeds now round four for me is always super important to making a delicious salad which is adding some type of grain now my favorite way to incorporate grains or carbs in this case is some leftover sourdough if i have some stale sourdough i will chop that up into pieces get a little oil in a hot pan throw in those stale bread pieces add some dried herbs a little bit of salt and just start frying those up until those are nicely browned and toasted and just like that you've got sourdough croutons that are so delicious i'm gonna soak up that dressing which i'll add to salad one and for salad too i actually don't have any leftover grains in my fridge so i'm gonna keep this one plain but if i did have some rice or some quinoa this would be a great place to add it now round five for me is where i would add a cheese element or some type of fatty element and one of my favorite ways to do that is some fresh avocado which i'm gonna add to salad one and then for salad two i'm gonna add some cheese and you could crumble in some blue cheese or some fresh cheese in there but i also like taking a harder cheese this is a hard goat cheese and just taking a peeler like i did with the carrots and peeling pieces of cheese in there round six is the way you make your salad a complete meal which is adding a protein element and for me that's the key to making salads sustainable where i'm eating them every day for lunch because they're filling me up and also a protein element that's what it takes for me to make my salads exciting so for salad one i took a chicken breast which had the skin on and i salted that and made sure that it was nice and dry and just fried that up in a pan for about three to four minutes aside and then what i like to do with chicken breast is take it off a little bit early and put that on a plate with some tin foil because it's going to continue to cook and this is a great way from keeping your chicken breast from over cooking in the pan and then for salad too if you don't want to use meat you could use a vegetarian option like tofu but one of my favorite protein elements is some hard-boiled eggs to make perfect hard-boiled eggs you're going to want to bring a pot of water to a boil and then lower in your eggs very slowly just dipping them in and out this is going to temper your eggs a bit and keep them from cracking and then you're gonna set your timer and want them a little more runny like a half boiled egg cook them for six minutes and if you want a full boiled egg cook them for 12 minutes so for me i pulled mine at 11 minutes and pop them right in some ice water to stop the cooking and then i crack the shell peel the eggs and those are ready to chop up and throw into my salad i added all that chopped up chicken to salad one and then those hard-boiled eggs to salad too and i was looking at salad too and it just felt like it was missing something and i looked over on my countertop and there they were beautiful cherry tomatoes one of my favorite salad ingredients and also these tomatoes are gonna add such a nice color pop to that sea of green and then the final round is the dressing and i've got three to choose from which is a difficult choice because i only have two salads here so for salad one i went with the cashew dressing i thought it would pair nicely with that and for salad too i went with the sun-dried tomato dressing and when you're mixing up your salad you want to be gentle with it you're not kneading your salad like it's bread though it's a gentle folding try to get under the base of the salad and just lift it up and fold it over and continue doing that until that salad dressing is incorporated and coating all of your ingredients there you go that's your complete guide on making salads not sucky that is the goal we don't want boring salads we want to be eating them all the time but we also want to be using the ingredients we have on hand so hopefully i gave you some tips on how to do that if you want some more videos some skill based videos like this check out these two right here and i'll see you in the next video this video is sponsored by the magic bullet kitchen express

Channel: Pro Home Cooks

Views: 389,829

Rating: 4.9555788 out of 5

Keywords: yummy salad, homemade salad dressing, how to make a sauce, magic bullet, magic bullet kitchen express, mini food processor, blender, chopper, mixer, make a healthy salad, healthy salad, salad ideas, best salad, perfect salad, make a good salad, how to make a good salad, dressing ideas, asian dressing, cashew dressing, how to eat healthy, how to break fast, best lunch, perfect lunch, healthy lunch ideas, salad bar, new

Id: qBGsQT6b7D0

Length: 16min 43sec (1003 seconds)

Published: Thu Nov 12 2020