Whether you pair this with vegetable rice or fried rice, salad will always serve it purpose, it is crunchy, tasty, and chilled enough to make one ask for more. The taste alone is heavenly not to talk of the beautiful combination you get from different vegetables, it is good enough to keep your hands and mouth busy, you will always want to put some in your mouth each time you look at the plate of salad just right in front of you. That is why it is called salad; you can use any vegetable at your reach to prepare it within 10 minutes. Salad is a type of food you need after coming back from work especially after a hot sunny day, you probably need to chill your throat with this colourful crunchy and satisfying vegetables after a workout day, this is so simple and quick to make just like coleslaw.
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What is salad made up of?
Mixed colour salad
Salad simply means the combination of different pieces of foods which may include vegetables, grains, nuts and egg, meat, cheese and fruits. Salad is always served chilled and can be eaten at any time of the day, one of the best is potato salad. The vegetables used for salads consist of lettuce, cucumber, cabbage, spinach, onions, potatoes, kale, celery, carrots, beet root and peas. The nuts may include almond, peanuts, date and while the grains may consist of sweet corn, baked beans, and walnuts. Additionally, proteins like, shredded beef, shredded chicken, cheese, egg, shrimps, tuna, mackerel, salmon and sardine can also be used in salad making. Salads can be categorized into vegetable salad and fruit salad.
Salad comes in different colours and different toppings are included; you may see different colours like green, purple, red, and also a mixture of different vegetables for salad in one dish. The salad colour should depend on the type and the choice of vegetables in which you want to use for the salad. Salad is almost similar to coleslaw, the differences are not much, since both are made with the used of vegetables, in fact, the only difference between both is that, the vegetables used for making coleslaw are usually chopped into fine pieces, and in most cases into uniform shapes. Also, cabbage forms the larger part of ingredient used for coleslaw and it is commonly dressed with mayonnaise and vinegar, while salad ingredients are vast and different vegetables can be combine with cabbage not necessarily being the top ingredient, and there is no specific way or style of chopping the vegetables. In most cases, a lot of people often chop their salad vegetables into larger chunks and not really minding the uniformity, while others prefer theirs in smaller sizes.
Salad dressing
This is a type of sauce or condiment usually used in dressing or mixing the salad after it has been prepared. They include vinaigrette, salad cream, and Caesar salad cream. Other things like butter milk, peanut butter, maple syrup, paprika, pure virgin olive oil, whipped cream, sour cream, yoghurt and mayonnaise are good choice for salad dressing.
When to eat salad
Salad is a popular food loved by many, you may likely come across salad in parties, birthdays, picnics weddings and in several events and it is often served chilled and sometimes warm depending on what was used for the preparation, and this can be at any time of the day. Since salad is a mixture of different food garnished with flavoured condiments, it can be served as a-
- Desert
- Appetizer
- Side dish
- Main food
Salad chopper- Even though there are various machines for chopping salad vegetables, you can use a simple hand grater for this, it is very easy to manage and also fast.
Salad ingredients
- 1 medium size purple cabbage
- 1 medium size green cabbage
- 5 leaves green lettuce
- 4 baby carrots
- I medium size beet root
- 1 cucumber
- Salad cream or mayonnaise (Caesar salad cream or Heinz salad cream)
- 1 bell pepper
- 2 eggs
- Salt
Fresh vegetables for salad recipe
Optional ingredients for salad
- 1 can of sweet corn
- 1 Cannedbaked beans
- 4 plum tomato
- 3 medium size Irish potatoes
- Chilli powder
- 1 Canned corned beef
- Runner peas
- Boiled macaroni
- Pasta or noodles
How to prepare salad
- Wash carrots, lettuce, cabbage, cucumber and bell pepper.
- Cook eggs and peel off the hard shell, further slice the eggs into tin circular shapes and keep aside.
- Using a tray and a grater grate carrots, and beet root into fine strip
- Use a knife to finely chop purple cabbage and green cabbage, lettuce and bell pepper.
- Divide cucumber into two and remove seeds, and then cut into smaller cubes and keep aside.
- Bring all the dressed ingredients into a salad bowl and add the eggs on top
- Cover the bowl and drop in thecleanfridge for 20-30 minutes to chill and to remain fresh
- When you want to serve, scoop some out and stir in salad dressing (salad cream or mayonnaise).
- Enjoy your chilled salad as a side dish with vegetable rice,coconut rice or fried rice.
Simple steps on how to make salad
1. Wash carrots, cucumber, lettuce, pepper, beet root and cabbages.
2. Cook eggs on stove, then peel the hard shell, cut into thin circular shap and keep aside.
3. With a grater, grate carrots and beet root into thin strips and keep aside.
4. Thinly chop lettuce, cabbages,and green bell pepper into a tray or a bowl.
5. remove seeds from the cucumber and chop into small cubes.
Chopped vegetables and salad dressing
6. Bring all the vegetables into a larger bowl, place the slice eggs on top, cover the bowl and place in the fridge for 20- 30 minutes to get chill.
7. When you are ready to serve the salad, scop out some portion and stir in you salad cream.
Fetch out a portion of salad and dress it the way you prefer
Salad with salad-cream topping
8. Enjoy your chilled salad as it is or with jollof rice.
Stirring of salad-cream properly to combine
Salad is now ready. Enjoy!
Important tips to note while making salad
- Salad is best served fresh, it is better you reduce the quantity of ingredients used than making it in excess and storing in the fridge for more than 2 days. For this recipe, I used parts of both green and purple cabbage. You can make the quantity of salad you will be able to finish and make more of it whenever you need it.
- If you like more green vegetables in your salad, increase the amount of cucumber and lettuce and you can use spinach in place lettuce for more greens in your salad.
- Sometimes, you may want to drizzle liquid milk and maybe sprite on your prepared salad, milk and sprite will give that unique flavour and taste you usually crave for at those special events salads.
- For more flavour and greens, fresh chopped basil leaves about 2 table spoons are great option for salad.
- You can as well add extra protein like chicken, beef, tuna or even shrimp to your salad if you prefer.
- Try as much as possible to make your vegies dry, when they are wet, a little weight is usually added to the salad and wet vegetables tend to make the dressing watery and even runny when mixed. I usually drain my cabbage with a colander and maybe pat dry some of the vegetables before slicing them.
- Even though salad is thought to be a combination of large chunk of vegies, I still prefer my vegetables in thin slices instead of oversized wedges of vegies. You can chop your vegie into mouth able size.
- The above picture of salad was made with two different cabbages, cucumber, bell pepper, carrots and beet root. The dressing was done with mayonnaise, pepper powder, little salt and sugar. You can drizzle maple syrup or honey over your salad in place of sugar.
- Additionally, if you are going to make a large quantity of salad, make sure you dont apply the dressing to the whole salad, scoop out the size you want to serve presently and store the remaining in an air tight bowl and place in the freezer, this can stay up to a week when it is frozen.