Salad Secrets (5 Rookie Mistakes to Avoid)

i have a story for you about salad one of my students let's call him bob told me that he's been trying to recreate the salad that he had in a restaurant with no luck he even asked the restaurant for recipe of course the restaurant told him there is no recipe all the ingredients are right there in front of you see tomatoes cucumbers onions lettuce it's all dressed with lemon juice and olive oil but bob was convinced that there was a secret ingredient they weren't telling him about so he asked me if this is not your first time watching my channel you probably know what that secret ingredient is right yup salt when i told him bob was shocked after class he went home and made the salad again this time with more salt and eureka that was it it was the salad of his dreams by the way do you know the origin of the word salad it comes from the latin word for salt yeah salt is the most important ingredient in any salad not using enough or using too much is the first tricky mistake of salad making [Music] okay let's go through a leafy green salad step by step if you're getting your leafy greens from a supermarket and the box says that they were already washed there is no need to wash them again if you want to be really good you might want to dump that salad onto a clean counter and remove any rotten leaves this will make the rest of the box last longer wipe out the box and put the salad greens back in i only do this if i need the greens to last longer than a couple of days most of the time i just try to use them up quickly now these beauties here are not from a supermarket they are from a local farm so i had to wash them three times to get rid of all the dirt then i spun them in my salad spinner in small batches to get them as dry as possible the second rookie mistake of solid making is using wet lettuce this dilutes your dressing and produces a soggy salad to remove the last bits of moisture i wrapped my lettuce and paper towels and then put it into a container or a salad spinner for at least a few hours and up to a few days obviously store it in the fridge i do this with all my leafy greens as soon as i bring them home this way they're ready to go whenever i need to use them let's coat a pita in a bit of oil and toast it until crispy i love to use bread in my salads it's a perfect way to soak up the delicious veggie juice if you want sprinkle some zatar mix on top it's a mix of mint thyme sumac and sesame seeds i buy mine on amazon and i will link to it below put into a preheated 350 fahrenheit oven for six to seven minutes or until crispy it doesn't always puff up like this that's not important you just want it to turn crispy cool your pita and chop it up other veggies i have for us today are cucumbers tomatoes and radishes for any form veggie like radishes i like to use a mandolin please wear a cut resistant glove with the mandolin sorry i forgot this time i'll link to it below as always do as i say not as i do okay let's make the dressing i'll start with one tablespoon of lemon juice yes it needs to be freshly squeezed if you don't want to squeeze a lemon juice vinegar you can make a vinaigrette out of pretty much any vinegar to help our acidic ingredient and oil hold together we'll need two teaspoons of dijon mustard this is also a good opportunity to add salt because it doesn't dissolve in oil now that everything is dissolved slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking constantly it doesn't need to be a continuous stream if you have a hard time controlling your pour pour a little and whisk until incorporated then pour a little more i like a very tangy vinaigrette so i only use two tablespoons of olive oil for one tablespoon of lemon juice you might need a little more oil if using vinegar since vinegar is more aggressive than lemon juice by the way salt is totally optional in the dressing you could certainly hold it back and add it straight to your salad the reason i like it in the dressing is that i don't measure anything for salads don't worry i measured it all very carefully for you this time but in real life i just taste and adjust in order for me to taste the dressing and figure out if it's good or not i need salt so i add it right up front you can always add more salt to your salad if the salt in the dressing ends up not being enough keep in mind that the salt i'm using is diamond crystal kosher it's very unsalty because its crystals have a very low density if you're using a different salt type including morton's kosher you'll need way less volume of salt grab one of your veggies dunk it into the dressing and taste if you find the acidity too strong add a bit more oil i think it's great this emulsion is short-lived our dressing will separate as it sits so we'll need to re-whisk it before dressing the salad leafy greens are the only type of salad for which a smooth creamy emulsion is necessary if i was dressing a coleslaw or a tomato cucumber salad i could just give it a squirt of lemon or vinegar and a few glugs of oil but the leafy greens taste a lot better to me with an emulsified dressing another must have ingredient we need to talk about is an onion i put some form of onion into all my salads it gives them wonderful pungency it could be a red onion or scallions or shallots if you want something super mild try vidalia i would stay away from yellow onions they are too strong for a salad whatever onions you use need to be cut very thinly big chunks of onion can be overwhelming if you find that even thin pieces are too strong for you try putting them into the dressing for a few minutes before dressing your salad salt and acidity will really tone them down okay we have all our ducks in the row and it's time to dress the salad if you're using lettuce regular herbs or any other delicate leafy greens you have to serve the salad immediately after dressing seriously you have five minutes before everything starts to weld please don't put out this kind of delicate salad for a self-serve buffet sort of meal there are gazillion salads that work well in that situation cabbage salad kale salad cauliflower salad but not baby greens baby lettuces need to be eaten right away the next rookie mistake is not using a big enough bowl this one holds only four appetizer portions or two entree portions small bowls result in unevenly dressed salad and bruised leafy greens i want to handle my leafy greens as little as possible so i like to put everything heavy into the bottom of the bowl and dress that first let's keep some dressing back we can always add more but we can't take it out a few grains of black pepper in go our pita chips let's separate all those radishes yes your hand is the best tool for this job most restaurant kitchens wouldn't dream of mixing a delicate green salad with utensils now we can put our lettuce on top give it a tiny drizzle of dressing and toss it gently but thoroughly some of my students are shocked that restaurants touch their food like this may i remind you how those cucumbers got sliced that's right if you don't want people touching your food stop eating out taste it for salt and acidity how to add salt is kind of obvious but what if you need more acidity and you ran out of dressing don't panic you can give your salad a little squirt of lemon and mix it in this salad is like mary poppins practically perfect in every way but it will only be that perfect for a few minutes so let's plate it up and eat if you ever wondered how restaurants get their salads to look tall and fluffy that's how they use their hands you might be wondering how did i know how much dressing to make gut feel try this make the same amount of salad seven days in a row and by the eighth day you'll know exactly how much dressing you'll need here are more thought-provoking culinary videos for you to check out and if you are ever in the boston area maybe i'll see you in one of my classes [Music] you

Channel: Helen Rennie

Views: 294,569

Rating: 4.9327793 out of 5

Keywords: salad, how to make a salad, how to make a green salad, green salad, leafy green salad, lettuce salad, salad dressing, vinaigrette, vinaigrette recipe, lemon vinaigrette, lemon vinaigrette recipe

Id: 601Rj1h_nlY

Length: 9min 52sec (592 seconds)

Published: Thu Jul 30 2020