Not everyone leaves home with the ability to cook, or even the knowledge of what certain dishes are. Tossed salad is bandied about as a simple dish, but if you don't know what it is, it becomes a complicated, out-of-reach item. Tossed salads start with a base of leefy greens, with a variety of garden vegetables, cheeses and nuts added as desired. The advantages to tossed salads are how simple they are to create and how varied they can be -- if you don't have a "traditional" salad ingredient like tomatoes, you can still make a tossed salad by substituting something else.
Step 1
Tear apart the leafy green vegetable and place in large bowl. You can leave baby spinach leaves intact if that's what you're using. The point is to make larger leaves easier to handle by cutting them up into smaller chunks.
Step 2
Throw in strands of shredded cabbage if you desire.
Step 3
Add the chopped vegetables. The leafy green vegetable will form the main bed of the salad, so don't overwhelm it by adding more vegetables than lettuce. The University of Kentucky suggests using 6 cups of greens to 1 1/2 cups of other ingredients.
Step 4
Incorporate a variety of ingredients into the salad, including chopped fruit, nuts, small tofu cubes, croutons, shredded cheese and chow mein noodles. You do not have to add all of them, of course, and in fact, if you want to avoid all of them and stick with just lettuce and other vegetables, you can do that, too. Some combinations may taste better than others to you. For example, adding both croutons and chow mein noodles could make the salad too carbohydrate-heavy if you're practicing a low-glycemic diet; opt for more protein-based ones such as cheese and meat instead.
Step 5
Hold the two large utensils over the salad bowl, one in each hand. Turn the handles so that the fork and spoon ends of the utensils are positioned "up" as they would be if you were attempting to eat with them.
Step 6
Dip the utensils into the salad ingredients and gather part of the ingredients in the fork and spoon portions.
Step 7
Raise the utensils up very gently and begin moving the salad ingredients up and about. Despite the name, don't fling the vegetables up into the air, although as you gain practice, you might find yourself tossing quickly enough to give the ingredients a little lift as you move them around.
Step 8
Continue tossing until all the ingredients look well-distributed.
Step 9
Pour salad dressing onto the salad sparingly -- too much dressing can drown the other ingredients. Start with a tablespoon or so, especially in small salads, and add little by little. Another option is to pour the dressing into a shallow bowl or cup, and coat the tines of your fork with dressing before picking up a salad ingredient. This second method is convenient when serving salads to others as it allows them to customize how much dressing they eat, instead of handing them food with a predetermined amount of dressing.
Tips and Warnings
- If you've never made a salad before and are not using a specific recipe, make a few practice salads before attempting to put together something for a dinner party. This gives you a chance to experiment and find out which vegetable combinations work for you. If you keep the dressing off to the side, you can add or subtract components as you try the salads out to find your favorite combination -- you're not stuck with a particular salad if you don't like it. Salad dressings include not only the traditional mixed dressings like thousand island, but also combinations of vinegar and oil, or lemon juice.
- Wash all vegetables before cutting up or shredding, even if the vegetable is pre-bagged and labeled as pre-washed. Colorado State University notes pre-washed vegetables can still be contaminated enough to cause food poisoning.
Things You'll Need
- Large bowl
- Leafy greens (any type -- lettuce, spinach or other of your choice)
- Shredded cabbage (optional)
- Chopped vegetables (your choice: sliced or shredded carrots, chopped tomatoes or halved cherry tomatoes, zucchini slices, cucumber slices, radish slices or other vegetables you can eat raw)
- Chopped fruit (apples, mandarin oranges, berries, pomegranate seeds or other fruit; optional)
- Nuts (optional)
- Tofu cubes (optional)
- Breadlike garnish such as croutons or fried chow mein noodles (optional)
- Large utensils, preferably a large fork and spoon set meant for creating salads
- Salad dressing (optional)
- Small cups or shallow bowls
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