A World in a Word

The word “salad” probably triggers thoughts of lettuce for most people, right next to the adjective “boring.”

But I’ll let you in on one of salad’s simple secrets: Salad is one of the most versatile dishes you can make. The possible combinations of ingredients are so numerous that you could serve two or three salads at one meal and not repeat a major ingredient! (Try it!)

With dozens of vegetables, dozens of fruits, many kinds of nuts, beans, grains, cheese, and even meats to choose from, the options are limited only by your imagination and what’s available. Add the range of choices in dressings and seasonings and you can see that there’s a whole world of flavor combination’s waiting to be explored.

And with the vitamins and minerals of organic foods, unprocessed oils, and quality vinegar or lemon juice, salads pack a major nutritional punch.

What Is a Salad, Anyway?

To my mind, the main feature of a salad is its being served cold. It doesn’t have to be raw; it doesn’t have to be dressed; but it should be cold. It should also have things that need to be chewed (otherwise it’s soup). That’s about it.

So if you’ve been stuck in the lettuce and tomato rut (with maybe the occasional cucumber thrown in), consider the wide range of foods that can pull you out called “salad.”

I mean, think about some of the more unusual salads you may have heard of or tried: Waldorf Salad (apples and raisins), chef’s salad (cold cuts added), potato salad (not a leaf of lettuce in sight!), Mexican salad (corn and peppers), gazpacho (tomato-based chopped salad), spinach salad (with bacon and walnuts), and more…some yet to be named or even invented!

Where Salads Reign

What if instead of the standard meat-potato-vegetable dinner, you served a meal with a small portion of cooked food and two or three cold salads? Revolutionary, I know. Maybe even un-American. But one of the things that makes the Standard American Diet so S.A.D. is its reliance on cooked (and even overcooked) foods.

Our national standards require many more servings of vegetables than most of us get. The first step to eating more vegetables and fruits may be to stop thinking “cooked” and start thinking “salads.” Raw vegetables are good on so many levels, not the least of which is: It’s hard to get fat on vegetables…but it’s easy to get healthier!

So get out those recipe cards and shopping lists and make “salad” one of your favorite meal-planning concepts. Salad’s simple secrets will reward your body well.

* Potatoes: Cut the potatoes into half inch potato slices before cooking them. Exhaust it and clean it in a strainer. Chop the sliced potatoes into pieces and put in to a salad basin.

* Salad dressing: The normal dressing for potato is mayonnaise. This increases the flavor of the potato. We can also add some amount of other condiments to increase the flavor. Plain mustard is the most popular one to add, to increase the taste. It’s preferred to go for lighter salad which can well mix with oil and vinegar dressing. Use refrigerator as a base to your dressing.

* Vegetables: The most common vegetable used in this salad is onion. Sweet onions are preferred as they are not burly as usual onion. Other vegetables used here are cucumber, tomatoes, carrots and radishes.

* Eggs and cheese: salads are sometimes called as boiled eggs. For standard sized salad of six potatoes we mix four eggs and two eggs are placed at the top of the bowl.

* Fruits: Some salads contain apple, pineapple and pear.

Waxy potatoes are best potatoes to use in salad recipe. We can also use small potatoes with red like skin. Fingerlings give colorful impression with skin like potatoes.

Even though wide variety of salads available, no salad gives taste like German salad. Most of northern and Southern Germany, Australian and southern European, countries use salads without vinegar and other oil products. Even though the base recipe remains unchanged in these regions, the number and variety of added ingredients can change significantly.

Even though salad is a commonly known dish, many people don’t know that potato salad is becoming extensively accepted in the Asian community, especially in Korea. However, the Korean version of the salad is a bit different. In the Korean version, we add beef, which we normally don’t perceive in a side dish, as well as cucumbers and fruits, like pears and pineapple. It is a very simple recipe that takes hardly any cooking.

To get best potato salad recipe of high quality, proper potatoes must be used. If we don’t use proper potatoes the salad we prepare may produce different flavor which you may not like. Also when you are trying to cook large amount of baked potatoes, get potatoes of similar size, this ensures all slices cooked evenly.

Preparation is the important step to create the best potato salad recipe. Preparation of best salad requires best preparation techniques, good harvested potatoes and other vegetables and ingredients.

Salad is a crowd puller. By following above mentioned steps in this article, you won’t make any mistakes and I think you can prepare salads of great taste. Enjoy making it!

1. It’s more nutritious than store-bought juices.

We often assume that any product with the word “juice” in it will automatically be healthy. Survey says: false! While you can find some fairly healthy juices on the market, many of them are loaded with sugar and salt; as well as artificial colors, flavors, and preservatives. So basically the unhealthy ingredients offset any health benefits that the juices have, such as a high Vitamin C content. On the other hand, juicing is an all-natural way to provide you with tasty beverages that are bursting with flavor and nutrition. The ingredients are straight from Mother Nature’s garden!

2. It maintains nutrients.

The longer we cook foods, the more nutrients we cook out of them. In fact, some scientific studies seem to indicate that cooking foods at temperatures over a 100º Fahrenheit can cook out enzymes that we need for digesting food, and our overall health. That’s why many health experts have begun to promote a “raw food diet” as a healthy way to get your fruits and veggies. After juicing for a while, you’ll start to lose your cravings for fatty, salty, and sugary foods.

3. It’s inexpensive.

One of the common myths about raw food diets is that they’re expensive. That simply isn’t true! In fact, compared to prepared and processed foods, it’s extraordinarily much cheaper to drink homemade juices. And not only will juicing help to keep you healthy, but it can help to prevent all sorts of ailments and diseases. And when that happens, you’ll save tons of money that you would have shelled out for operations, hospital stays, and medications. Basically, juicing makes the pharmaceutical companies as red with anger as a ripe tomato.

4. It’s flexible.

The combinations are virtually endless when you do your own juicing. Here are some of the various ingredients that you can add to your healthy and homemade juices:

• Fruits
• Garlic
• Ginger
• Vegetables
• Wheatgrass

Basically, you can play the role of a mad scientist, and mix and match until you find the combinations that suit your tastes.

5. It’s convenient.

While food preparation can easily take hours, time isn’t a luxury that we have in today’s world. Today’s juicing machines are easy to operate and clean. And you can find juicing ingredients in supermarkets or your own garden-so you won’t need to run around town to find that one ingredient that no grocery store seems to have.

Juicing is certainly a healthy, delicious, and affordable way to prepare your meals and snacks. Once you try juicing, you’ll never drink another “juice box” again!