Saturday, March 21, 2015

How to clean and store lettuce for a crisp fresh salad

My favorite addition to our family meal is a great salad.






A healthy Salad is often the only side you will need for your meal. Of course you must watch what dressing you put on your salad so as not to load it with calories.   Basic is best but I will give you a few dressing suggestions later in the links.

You should try to make your salad early in the day to avoid rushing at dinnertime.  There are a few things you can do early so you'll be able to make dinnertime a breeze.



One:  Select your greens.  Will be be iceberg, romaine, red or green leaf, bibb or a combination of a few?  Personally I like the combination of iceberg and romaine.  Chop or tear bite size pieces of the lettuce for easier eating.  Small pieces are much better than huge pieces you have to cut.  It's neater and it's make for a nicer presentation too!

Two:  Place all of the torn pieces in a large size bowl and rinse thoroughly several times as to remove all dirt and anything undesirable on leaves.  Leave lettuce in cold water and sprinkle with a dash of sugar while getting the vegetables ready.  Set aside.

Three:  Dice or Cut up green onion, red onion or sweet onion.

Four: Dice peppers (red,green,yellow, orange) whatever you have in your fridge.

Five:  Broccoli, cauliflower pieces add a nice touch or zucchini

Six:  Cucumbers, I like to use seeded ones or sometimes I remove the seeds by scooping out the center (sometimes seeds on cucumbers and tomatoes can be bitter).  You can either remove skin and score the cucumber or make sure your cucumber is washed and leave the skin on.

Seven:  Tomatoes   Wash and add to salad right before serving.

Once all of your vegetables are diced, sliced and washed, drain lettuce and add all vegetables.  Place paper towels on top so salad does not dry.  Periodically I remove salad from refrigerator and drain excess water.  Leave in refrigerator with paper towel in place until ready to serve.  Enjoy!

Here are Links for a few of my salad dressings:

Italian Salad Dressing

Mandarin Orange Salad Dressing










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