Basic salad ingredients can create a colorful and satisfying dish.
By many people, salads are considered diet food, boring or less than delicious. This is not so. Salads are light fare that, in their variety, can be sweet, savory and filling. Not to mention, salads are easy to put together and travel well as a dish to pass for picnics, parties and banquets. If you have some simple, basic salad ingredients you can put one together in minutes.
Basic Lettuce Salad Ingredients
The most common salad that can be served as a side dish to any meal is comprised of vegetables. There is no limit to what vegetables to put in your salad or what type of lettuce. There is crisp, watery iceberg lettuce, romaine lettuce or mixed greens. Romaine and mixed greens have higher nutritional value. To add color to your salad pick up a yellow, red or green pepper. Add in a tomato and onions. Any of your favorite vegetables will do. Other options are olives, cucumber and avocado. Slice the vegetables and place them on top of the salad or dice them and toss them with the lettuce so they are mixed in well.
Basic Fruit Salad Ingredients
Fruit salad is not only healthy, its sweet and is a cool treat to have in the summer that provides refreshment. Your basic, simple, fruit salad will be a mix of tossed fruits. Try a combination of berries, melons and add in kiwi or grapefruit for an extra zing. Blueberries, strawberries, grapes, honeydew and muss melon all make an appearance in the basic fruit salad.
Basic Chicken Salad
Chicken salad can be made more than one way, each one is quick and easy. For a light chicken salad, simply add pieces of cooked chicken to your basic vegetable salad. If you want to make chicken salad to use in sandwiches you'll need pieces of cooked chicken, sliced or shredded, mayonnaise, salt and pepper, and if you wish, you can add in walnuts or grapes for texture and added sweetness. Combine the ingredients together in a large bowl until they are well mixed. Place the chicken salad in a pita or on bread.
Salad Dressings
Salad dressings add extra flavor to whatever salad you put on them. There are a variety of store-bought dressings to choose from or you can make your own. For a low-calorie salad dressing that adds a savory zip to your vegetable salad, mix together red wine vinegar and olive oil, and pour on your salad in the desired quantity. Although not technically a salad dressing, you can give your fruit salad a dessert-like quality with a dollop of whipped cream on top. Fruit salad is often topped with yogurt, too. Other salad dressings available at the store are thousand island, ranch, Italian and French.
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