What are your favorite salads?

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merstar

Head Chef
Joined
Aug 31, 2004
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Here are some of mine - Will post links to any of the recipes if anyone's interested:

Thai-Style Pasta Salad
Pacific Rim Caesar Salad
Citrus Green Bean Salad
Carrot Rapee
Carrot, Orange, and Radish Salad
Salade de Concombres et Chevre (Cucumber and Goat Cheese Salad)
Thai Cucumber Salad
 
These all sound great, Merstar! Links please!

I love potato salad, that crunchy ramen noodle salad with bok choy and toasted sesame seeds, salad bar salad (AKA salad in a bag here) with sunflower seeds cottage cheese and peas, a really good coleslaw.
 
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Coleslaw! creamy and oil & vinegar

My go to lunch salad: Baby Kale, Baby Spinach, Baby Arugula, sprouts (alfalfa, lentil, radish), grape tomatoes, green onions, walnuts, dried cranberries, scoop of tuna or salmon salad (lemon juice, capers, diced sweet onions), side of red wine vinegar and olive oil Italian dressing.

Fruit salads.
 
Salads are wonderful venues for creation.

I have a smoked salmon Caesar salad that I created not long after I got the Cameron's stovetop smoker. This salad is one of our favorites.

Now, after having some at Glenn's daughter's home, I have developed a fondness for Cajun/Creole potato salad and, after playing with the ingredients, I think I've come up with a "winner." At least Glenn and his son say so. That's all the encouragement I need.

I also have an awesome main course salad of short ribs and beets with tarragon. This is a recipe I got from chef Daniel Boulud before anyone knew he existed.

Let's see...there are many more, but these are the ones that came off the top of my head.
 
These all sound great, Merstar! Links please!

I love potato salad, that crunchy ramen noodle salad with bok choy and toasted sesame seeds, salad bar salad (AKA salad in a bag here) with sunflower seeds cottage cheese and peas, a really good coleslaw.

Hi Dawgluver,

Which ones do you want me to link to?
 
We have a dinner salad almost every night but I hate to make them, not sure why. Steve is in charge of making them and he nightly goes over the top with all kinds of goodies we may have on hand. One must in our dinner salads is strips of pickled beets, no matter what.
If I order a beloved Cobb Salad in a restaurant, it had better come with perfect strips of ingredients over the greens, and not tossed or I'll send it back. Yes, I do ask first.
I love to make my "copy cat" KFC cole slaw..the best ever imo.
A great perfectly made spinach salad is top of the list too.
I can't really think of a salad I don't like.
 
I love salad but I have no recipes for salads. I make them to taste (I must be Chef Michael Smith's twin separated at birth). I love to mix "bitter" greens with regular greens, tomatoes, yellow/orange/red peppers, dehydrated tomatoes, pickled beans, sprouts, berries, nuts, cheese, seeds, and toss it all together with an infused EVOO and specialty vinegar, S&P, some nutritional yeast, some edible flowers, chopped hard cooked eggs, some sesame oil, maybe a bit of grated ginger and soy sauce, fresh chopped herbs, maybe some wild rice or barley. Grated baby beets, carrots, radishes, kohlrabi, zucchini, grated cabbage. Not much help, here. If I've recently made kimchi, I'll use the "juice" from that as the dressing and finely chop some of the kimchi. My go-to 5-bean salad is tossed with homemade salsa and topped with fresh chopped cilantro. When in season, add some fresh chopped cucumbers and fresh tomatoes, onion, grilled corn, green and wax beans, kidney beans, garbanzo beans, rosemary-lemon pickled beans, some chopped fresh kale, swiss chard, or spinach. The older I get, the less often I use recipes except when baking. I wing most of what I cook and use what is on hand--either in the pantry or in the garden or in season.
 
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Hm, let's see... All of them? They all sound good!

Okay, here ya go. I do tweaks on most of these, but here are the basic recipes - some are posted with the tweaks:

Thai-Style Pasta Salad
Thai-Style Pasta Salad Recipe | Vegetarian Times

Pacific Rim Caesar Salad
http://www.epicurious.com/recipes/recipe_views/views/105973

Citrus Green Bean Salad
Citrus Green Bean Salad Recipe at CooksRecipes.com

Carrot Rapee
Eat@ Recipe Swap & Recipes :

Carrot, Orange, and Radish Salad
Eat@ Recipe Swap & Recipes :

Salade de Concombres et Chevre (Cucumber and Goat Cheese Salad)
Eat@ Recipe Swap & Recipes :

Thai Cucumber Salad
Thai Cucumber Salad Recipe - Food.com
 
My favorite right now (it'll change tomorrow or the next day, I'm sure): arugula, white beans, thinly sliced red onions, capers with olive oil, lemon juice, lemon zest and a splash of maple syrup in the vinaigrette dressing.
 
Okay, here ya go. I do tweaks on most of these, but here are the basic recipes - some are posted with the tweaks...


Thank you Merstar! They all look yummy!
 
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Salad Nicoise or greek salads. I like these in summer using fresh rather than dried oregano.

I Like:
Tabbouleh
Chinese/ Asian/ chicken salads
3 bean salads
Cole slaw, like KFC/ or vinegar based, but really, my favorite is using blue cheese dressing mixed in just before serving so it doesn't get watery.
I like plain old tuna pasta salad with baby peas.

I notice I don't seem to put fruit mixed in salads very often. No strawberries or watermelon with my spinach etc. Not sure why. I love fruit salads that are all fruits.
 
When I go out it is usually a Cobb salad, chicken wing salad or a steak salad.

At home I usually keep it pretty simple.

Cucumber and onion with apple cider vinegar, S&P, celery seed.
Tomato, oregano, S&P, olive oil.
Cabbage salad.

My all time favorite is a traditional potato salad, now days it is a once or twice a year treat. Please peel the potatoes! :ermm::ohmy::LOL:
 
Somebody please stop me!

1) Potato salad (my wife's specialty)
2) 3 bean salad (feel free to make dressing suggestions)
3) Southern style cole slaw (Chick-Fil-A makes one of my favorites) slightly sweet and chopped very fine. I'll eat just about any cole slaw however.
4) Kale or baby greens, thin-sliced purple onion, feta cheese, candied pecans, mandarin oranges with a raspberry vinegarette dressing.

5) This is the fantastic one my Dad used to make back in the 50's: Would you believe wedges of pear, grapefruit, avocado with thin slices of American cheese between them all on a bed of lettuce covered with French dressing? He would arrange them in a circle alternating all the ingredients. It is a taste treat to die for.

6) My grandma's picnic delight which is lime jello with cottage cheese and fruit cocktail set into the jello. As kids, me and my cousins couldn't get enough if this treat.

This is only a partial list.....
 
Today's lunch salad was:

1 head of red leaf lettuce
5 walnuts, roasted and chopped
a handful of "yellow" raisins
3 spears of asparagus, blanched
4 broccoli florets, blanched
1 carrot, julienned
2 stalks celery
1 tomato
1 avocado
35 g smoked salmon
1 hard cooked egg
nutritional yeast
a handful of garbanzo bean sprouts
some lemon zest
about 1/4 c rhubarb with S&P and white wine vinegar
mushrooms
1 shallot, chopped
some chives and garlic chives

I had considered adding a chopped apple, but the 6 qt bowl was rather full...so figured I had enough to eat. I was stuffed (still am!).

Tossed together, drizzled with EVOO and freshly squeezed lemon juice, S&P.
 
Another new favorite

This is a salad I had when we went out to dinner last night. It was so pretty, and I didn't think to take a picture of it! The plate was piled with mesclun greens, and then mandarin orange pcs., apple, walnuts, dried cranberries, croutons and a topped with a little round warm panko coated goat cheese medallion, with raspberry vinaigrette. I opted to have the grilled chicken on that as well. I can't wait to try this one at home. I'm guessing it's a common summer salad, but I hadn't had it before. Yummm!
 
Made this a couple weeks ago and it was so good I grabbed some smoked chicken yesterday to make it again! I'm also loving black rice. It's not only a nutritional powerhouse, it tastes great and it makes this salad look a million bucks.


Turkey & Black Rice Salad

1/2 cup of Fresh Cilantro, chopped
3 Tbsp of Fresh Mint, chopped
2 Tbsp of Canola Oil (I used olive oil)
3 Tbsp of Rice Wine Vinegar
1 Tbsp of Lime Juice
1 tsp of Sugar (I used honey)
1/2 tsp of Sesame Oil
1 Tbsp of Soy Sauce
1 Clove of Garlic, finely minced
1 tsp of Grated Ginger
1 Jalapeno Pepper, seeded and finely minced
1 red Bell Pepper, diced (I roasted my red pepper)
3 cups of Cooked Black Rice
8oz of Cooked Shredded Turkey (I used part of a smoked chicken quarter)
 
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