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

This video is sponsored by Magic Bullet Kitchen Express. I don't know about you, but when I was a kid, a

salad

was probably the last thing I ordered on the menu because

salad

s were boring. They look like that, at least to me. what a salad looked like and that's not exciting, this is the kind of food I wanted to order, this is what's exciting, but as I got older these salad shops started popping up where you could customize your own salads and add those fun additions . and I chose the perfect salad dressing and

finally

the salads turned out delicious, which is great because salads are full of nutrients but they are also great to eat for lunch.

I eat them all the time at lunch because they don't weigh me down and I'm a busy guy and I want to stay efficient during the day, so what I'm going to show you today is how to create that salad shop experience in your own kitchen by giving you the systems right ones you need to be able to get into your refrigerator, go to your pantry, create a really tasty salad dressing completely from scratch and then of course create the perfect salad, but before we start cooking, we need to take a little trip to the place where our salad journey begins, so if you want to

make

a really good salad, we are talking about an above average salad, you need to look for good ingredients, quality fresh ingredients and of course the best way to do it is at the market from local farmers or any fresh market around you, especially when it comes to getting good lettuce because lettuce is so perishable that grocery stores will usually have the product in bags or in plastic because it can be shipped nationwide. or wherever it comes from and you also see the same thing in grocery stores, romaine lettuce in the spring.

Toss in arugula when it arrives at your local market, you can step out of the basic world of lettuce and into a new dimension of lettuce filled with all kinds of varieties, and of course, there's nothing fresher than a lettuce sourced from a farm near you. . unless you know you're growing it yourself, this is a red leaf here, let's take a red leaf. Hello now, when you come back from the market, if your green leaves are not clean well, you should clean them and the best way to do it. It's a salad spinner which is a great investment if you don't have one, but you can also clean greens with just a bowl of water and some towels, so what I like to do is take my head of lettuce and pick it up first.

If the outside is wilted or damaged, I start plucking each leaf individually and putting them in the bowl. Once you get to the inside of the lettuce, I usually pull out the core, which will then free up all those smaller leaves. fill the container with water until the leaves are completely submerged and then start shaking those greens which will release the dirt or sand or whatever debris is on your greens and it will fall to the bottom so when you get out of there water the entire Dirt or debris will be removed with the water and if your leaves are very dirty you may want to repeat this step one or two more times until the water is a little clearer or your leaves look nice and clean. and then you're ready to spin, so I'm going to activate my salad spinner which uses centrifugal force to remove excess liquid, but again, if you don't have a salad spinner, you can just take the leaves out of the water and put them on a towel or a paper towel and pat them dry now.

As for storing your vegetables, there are a few different techniques here. My favorite is to get some type of container to store food. Add a paper towel to the bottom that will absorb any excess moisture that could potentially wilt your vegetables faster and place them in the container and because there are walls and your container has a frame, this will protect your vegetables from being damaged, but When it comes to sturdier vegetables, you usually just wrap them in a paper towel and then put them in a reusable plastic bag and they are ready to store right in the refrigerator, so the first kitchen appliance I found was a mini food processor. foods that at that moment were completely transformed. my cooking game because it opened up the world of fresh sauces and salad dressings.

Now, this magic bala 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 run out. You use something this size much more often in the kitchen because it's easier to use, it's easier to clean, you can throw it right in the dishwasher, it's definitely easier to store, and you're probably just cooking for yourself or a few other people. So you don't really need a big machine to do the job. I also love kitchen gadgets that can do multiple tests, especially when you have a smaller kitchen and don't want the clutter of a ton of appliances and this magical solution.

Kitchen Express does just about everything. You can

make

a smoothie here. You can chop and mash vegetables, but most importantly, you can easily flavor your food by making a fresh sauce or salad dressing here in a matter of minutes, which is what you need. You're about to learn, so if you're interested in this magic quick cooking formula, check out 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 that you can appeal. cooking school to learn that for me it's about using what you have in the pantry, going to the refrigerator and seeing what's available to make a dressing and to do that you need to understand the balance of flavors when it comes to sauce or dressing, so It's all about balance of flavors, so I'm going to make three completely unique salad dressings using my guide to basic flavors to hopefully give you a little more confidence to get fun and use what you have in the kitchen, so on the first round we will choose our base. flavor, this is the flavor that will be most prominent in our dressing and also what we're going to build our dressing around, so to dress one I'm using some soaked cashews and if you're using nuts in a dish dressing, you'll always want to soak them to break them up. cell walls so they emulsify nice and smooth for seasoning too.

I'm using some sun-dried tomatoes that are full of umami and have great flavor right there to top three as a base that I'm using. a little bit of miso paste which again is full of umami, it's a little funky, it's a little sweet and a great base for any sauce or dressing. Now, the second round is all about the aromatics, herbs and spices that will literally flavor your dressing and add. that aroma, the next layer of flavor, so to dress one up I go with a little cilantro. I can use the leaves and stems. Two cloves of garlic and some cumin seeds for seasoning too.

I'm going to use a clove of garlic and some parsley leaves. and then for topping three, I use a little bit of ginger that I'm going to grate to make sure there aren't any big pieces of ginger left. I'm also going to add a little bit of sesame oil, which is a wonderful way to instantly smooth. add a sesame flavor throughout the dressing. Now the third round is the sweet and spicy round, both are completely optional, but this is all a matter of flavor preference. How do you want to balance your dressing for dressing number one?

I'm going to use a little smoked paprika. for topping number two, just a little bit of honey to sweeten it and then for topping number three, that miso paste is already a little bit sweet, so I'm going to use a little bit of chili paste for flavor. Now, that's the fourth round. acidic element that is mandatory, you need that acid to make your salad dressing really stand out. I'm going to use the juice of a whole lime, which will really pair well with those Mexican flavors like cilantro and cumin for the seasoning as well. I'm going to use the juice of one lemon, but you want to make sure you strain the seeds out of the lemon because if you start mixing in some lemon seeds you're going to add a lot of extra bitterness that I probably don't miss your dressing and then for dressing three, I'm going to take advantage of all of those.

Asian flavors and I'll add a little rice vinegar. Now the dressing is used to season other raw ingredients, so it needs to be heavily seasoned for it to have an impact. I'm going to season the first two toppings with salt and for the third topping the miso paste is quite salty, so I'll hold off on adding additional salt until I give it a try. Now the fourth round is your oil or your fat element, which again is essential for dressing, you need that oil element to really bind the dressing and give it a little bit more of that mouthfeel to give it a little bit of creaminess, so to To dress one I will also use a little avocado oil dressing since I have more Italian or Mediterranean flavors.

I'm going to use a little bit of olive oil and

finally

, for dressing 3, I'm just going to use neutral canola oil because it already has so much flavor. Now for the last round of adjustments that are so important whenever you make any sauce or dressing, you have to taste it to see where you are at to see how those flavors balance out and I would just say trust yourself, taste it and think for a second, trust that your palate knows what this dressing needs. the spice is good, do I have another lime? If I have another lime, I'll probably squeeze half a lime.

I could use a little more acidity and a little more salt. I think we are perfect, it looks super creamy and a little thick. I'll probably add a little bit of water, let's give it a try, I like it though. I think I got it on the first shot, so just a little bit of water to dilute it, come on, so obviously we're going to need a little bit of water in there. on the thicker side, but let's try the seasoning salty enough, the good spice definitely needs to be diluted. I think it lacks a little sweetness.

I thought the miso would be sweet enough. This is a younger miso that is quite sweet but needs some sweetness. I know I really thought I was going to add mirror to this and I forgot and that's what it needs a little bit of mirin it will have a nice sweetness a little more of that tart touch from the mirror too so it should be perfect that's good for The salad dressing sample is much better, less water intense of course, but mirin is all about balance. It's all about balance when you make a sauce or dressing.

I think the reason more people don't eat salads is because salads are traditionally prepared. of a lot of greens and greens and that's a little boring at least for me that's not motivating enough to eat more greens and greens the key is to camouflage those greens and greens and almost trick yourself into eating more making this a complete dish By adding all these other elements that make your salad fun and of course the options are endless you can put anything on your salad but like I did with dressing I created a system to help you develop your salad step by step to prepare it. it is more pleasant to eat, I am going to make two different salads using this system and the first element is of course the base vegetables, so for salad one I am going to use some butter lettuce that I bought at the market and, if the leaves are super small you can throw them in whole or if the leaves are larger you can chop them however you want and I'm also going to use some kale that I'm finely chopping and then for the base salad I'm going to use this one as well. green that I bought at the market, I don't actually know the name and then some more butter lettuce.

Now the next round is all about fresh vegetables, what are those heartier vegetables that will complement those greens for the salad? I'm going to add some sprouts and then I'm going to take a carrot and what I like to do is take a peeler and you get these nice shaved bits that not only look sexy in your salad but they also give it a really nice texture and I'm also going to cut some fresh radish and put it in the mix and for salad 2 I have some corn and I'm going to cut it off the cob because it's super juicy and sweet at least for the corn here on the east coast and then I'll also add some sliced ​​cucumbers.

Now the third round is where you can add some of those pantry items that you might have lying around, like nuts, seeds or dried fruits, which might add a little element of texture, a little bit of saltiness. a little bit of sweetness, so for salad one I go with some raisins and for salad two I go with some sunflower seeds. Now the fourth round for me is always very important to make a delicious salad, to which some kind of grain is now added. My favorite way to incorporate grains or carbs in this case is some leftover sourdough.

If I have some stale sourdough, I'll cut it into pieces. I put a little oil in a hot pan. I add those pieces of stale bread. I add some dried herbs. a little salt and start frying them until they are nice and golden brown and toasted and then you will have sourdough croutons that are so delicious that they will absorb that dressing that I will add to thesalad one and for the salad too, I don't really. I don't have any leftover grains in my refrigerator, so I'm going to leave this one simple, but if I had some rice or some quinoa, this would be a great place to add it.

Now for me, round five is where I would add a cheese element or some kind of fatty element and one of my favorite ways to do that is some fresh avocado that I'll add to salad one and then for salad two, I'll add a little bit of cheese and you can crumble it with some blue cheese or something fresh. cheese there, but I also like to take a harder cheese, this is a hard goat cheese and just taking a peeler like I did with the carrots and peeling chunks of cheese there on the sixth round is the way to make your salad a meal complete that adds a protein element and for me that is the key to making sustainable salads where I eat them every day for lunch because they fill me up and they also have a protein element which is what I need to make my salads interesting so to For the first salad I took a chicken breast that had skin on it and I added salt. and I made sure it was really dry and I just fried it in a pan for about three or four minutes and then what I like to do with the chicken breast is remove it a little early and put it on a plate with some aluminum foil because it will continue to cook and this is a great way to keep the chicken breast from overcooking in the pan and then also for the salad if you don't want to use meat you can use a vegetarian option like tofu but one of my favorite protein items are some hard boiled eggs to make perfect hard boiled eggs you will want to boil a pot of water and then submerge the eggs very slowly just dipping them in and out this is going to temper the eggs a little bit and prevent them from breaking and then you will set the timer and the you'll want a little more liquid 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 took mine out at 11 minutes and put them in some ice water to stop the cooking and then I cracked the shell, peeled the eggs and they are ready to chop and throw into my salad. I added all that chopped chicken. salad one and then those hard boiled eggs for salad too and I was also looking at the salad and I felt like something was missing and I looked at my counter and there were beautiful cherry tomatoes, one of my favorite salad ingredients and also These tomatoes will add a pop of color so nice to that sea of ​​green and then the final round is the dressing and I have three to choose from which is a tough choice because I only have two salads here so I chose salad one. with the cashew dressing I thought it would go very well with that and for the salad I also chose the sun dried tomato dressing and when you are mixing your salad you have to be careful with it, you are not kneading your salad like you would bread, although it is a soft fold, try to get under the base of the salad and just lift it up, fold it and keep doing it until the salad dressing is incorporated and covers all the ingredients.

There you have it, that's your complete guide to making salads. It's not bullshit, that's the point, we don't want boring salads, we want to eat them all the time but we also want to use the ingredients we have on hand, so I hope I've given you some tips on how to do that if you want. some more videos, some skill based videos like this one, check out these two right here and I'll see you in the next video. This video is sponsored by Magic Bullet Kitchen Express.