Lettuce alone isn't enough, it's a must be topped to add richness and flavor to your salad, so choose special toppings that are suitable for home preparation and tips on how to make your homemade salad restaurant-quality by sprinkling the ingredients on top of it after the salad is finished!
5 key points to pick your ingredients
1 Mismatched overly sweet fruits
Eating too sweet ingredients is easy to get greasy, and it also overshadows the sweet and crunchy taste of salad lettuce.
2. It is easy to change color and not be in phase
The oxidation of lettuce reduces the taste of the food, not to mention the discoloration of the ingredients, and the taste will be greatly reduced, such as bananas, apples and other ingredients that are easy to oxidize are not suitable as ingredients.
3 The slightly sour taste is just right
Too much acidity will cause the lettuce to soften and lose its crispness. However, if the ingredients have a little acidity, they can bring out the sweetness of the vegetables and achieve an appetizing effect at the same time.
4 Mix sweet and salty with the sauce
There are also salty and sweet toppings, and experts recommend sweet toppings with slightly sweet sauces such as yogurt or Thousand Islands, and salty flavors with salty and sour sauces such as vinaigrette and caesar to avoid conflict.
5. It is easy to get out of the water and confuse the taste
The ingredients themselves should avoid easy water, which will cause the mixed sauce to taste out of the water and produce a strange taste.
Teach you how to make your own 5 refreshing ingredients
Candied lemon slices
Try to choose yellow lemon with low acidity and full aroma, and use sugar to reduce excessive acidity but retain fresh fragrance, and only need to put 2~3 slices of lettuce on the plate.
Suggested pairing: a more refreshing Japanese, Nice or fruity salad
1. Slice the yellow lemon, the thinner the better, but avoid breaking the lemon slices.
Tip: Cutting thinner will not only shorten the marinating time, but also prevent the bitterness of the peel from being too pronounced when tasting.
2. Mix the white sugar and water in a ratio of 2:3. Bring to a simmer until there are no particles, stir while cooking to avoid burning, let the sugar cool when dissolved, and then throw the lemon slices directly in.
Tips: Do not put lemon slices in the sugar water when the temperature is high, it will produce a bitter taste.
3. Seal it with plastic wrap and store it in the refrigerator, which can be marinated for about 3~4 weeks until it tastes.
Fresh orange pulp
Oranges contain a lot of vitamin C, zinc and folic acid, and the rich flavor of the sweet and sour mixture can help to upgrade the freshness of the salad.
Suggested pairing: a more refreshing Japanese, Nice or fruity salad.
1. Cut off the head and tail of the orange first, exposing the flesh and peel of the peel. Peel the peel along the edge of the pulp.
Tip: Remove the white part of the peel thoroughly so that it does not taste bitter.
2. Follow the diaphragm in the pulp, adopt the V-shaped knife method, cut the orange flesh into one petal from both sides of each petal.
Tips:切瓣时要避开白膜,避免入口时果渣卡牙缝.
Vinegar tomatoes
Because they are made with vinaigrette, vinaigrette tomatoes are a salad in their own right, and they can be enjoyed on their own as an ingredient in salads.
Suggested pairing: vinaigrette or nice salad.
1. Mix the oil and apple cider vinegar in a ratio of 3:1, add a little salt and black pepper and mix well and set aside.
2. Boil the water in a pot, cross the pedicle of the small tomatoes, blanch them in the pot for about 20~30 seconds, and peel off the outer skin film.
Tips: Blanching is to facilitate the removal of the skin of tomatoes rather than cooking, and should not be cooked for a long time.
3. Mix the vinaigrette sauce, peeled tomatoes and crushed brasili, let stand for about half an hour to taste, and then use.
Bacon dice
The bacon made from pork belly is rich in fat, which can be heated directly to force out the fat to make the bacon crispier, and sprinkled with diced bacon can add aroma to the salad, and the fat can also increase the smoothness.
Suggested pairing: Heavier caesar or sour vinaigrette salad
1. Cut the bacon strips into cubes first, but cut them into larger pieces than usual, and then shrink them when the pan is heated.
2. Turn on the heat to heat the pot first, turn to low heat and stir-fry slowly after the diced bacon is put into the pot, force out the oil in the bacon, and use it when the color of the bacon becomes darker and the edges are slightly charred.
Dried pineapple fruit
The use of seasonal ingredients to bake and dry can avoid the dead sweetness of commercially processed products affecting the taste of salads, and also retain the original nutrients. For example, pineapples in season can be directly prepared into dried fruits, which retains the sweet and sour taste and increases the variability of salad ingredients.
Suggested pairing: a more refreshing Japanese, Nice or fruity salad.
1. Peel the pineapple after removing the head and tail, peel it from both ends, and cut it into round slices.
2. Bake directly in the oven at a low temperature of 40 degrees Celsius for about 30 minutes, avoiding scorching until the water is removed.