Make that perfect green salad

Salads are increasing in popularity due to the fact that they are healthy, easy and perfect for a host of dishes as well as types of meals. When making a salad, you have full carte blanche creative license, ranging from main-dish salads for lunch or dinner to fruit and vegetable accompaniments to any meal. Given their colour and versatility, salads are welcome anytime at buffet dinners, casual picnics, elegant luncheons, or family meals.

Salads are what the doctor ordered for dinner on a hectic work day or on a hot day when you do not want to spend a lot of time in the kitchen. Today, convenience products make salads even easier with supermarkets selling meats and vegetables that are already “salad friendly” labelled, cut up and ready to go.

Greens basics
Choosing salad greens is often the first step in creating a tossed salad or main-dish salad. Knowing the different types of greens available lets you make inventive and satisfying salads.

Crisp head (or iceberg) lettuce has a mild flavor that makes it the most popular green. Look for solid, compact heads with tight leaves that range from medium-green outer leaves to pale green inside.

Boston (aka butter head) lettuce has a small, rounded head of soft buttery- feeling leaves that have a delicate flavour.
Bibb (or limestone) lettuce has tender, pliable leaves that are similar to those of Boston. Bibb is smaller than Boston but has a similar delicate, mild flavour.

Romaine (or cos) has narrow, elongated dark leaves that have a crisp texture.

Leaf lettuce; red, bronze or green has tender leaves that do not form heads. These leafy bunches have a mild, though sometimes nutty flavor.

Belgian or French endive has closed, narrow, pale leaves with a pleasantly bitter flavour.
Curly endive has frilly, narrow leaves with a slightly bitter flavour.

Escarole, also part of the endive family, is a less frilly, broad-leafed endive with dark green leaves.
Radicchio resembles a small loose-leaf cabbage with smooth tender leaves. The Rosso variety has rose coloured leaves with white veins, and Castelfranco, blander is sweeter and has leaves that are sprinkled with pink, green and red flecks or swirls.

Watercress has rounded dark green leaves on leggy stems, with a strong, peppery flavour.
Spinach has smooth, tapered, dark green leaves that are sometimes crumpled at the edges.

Sorrel, also known as sourgrass, looks similar to spinach but its leaves are smaller. Sorrel has a sharp lemony flavour.
Cabbage comes in a variety of types. Green and red cabbage are the most familiar. Look for compact heads. Savoury cabbage has crinkled leaves while Chinese cabbage (or Napa) cabbage has long, crisp leaves.

Selecting and storing salad greens
• Ensure greens are fresh and avoid limp or bruised greens as well as those with rust spots.
• Store the greens in the crisper of the fridge in the original wrapping or place in a plastic bag until needed. Always wash them when you are ready to use them.
• Be sure to wash greens thoroughly in several changes of cold water. In the case of greens that may be sandy, such as spinach, separate leaves with your fingers to remove all the grit. Gently blot dry to remove the remaining moisture; refrigerate.
• Watercress, parsley and fresh herbs should be refrigerated in screw top jars filled with water. Make sure that the stems are in the water.
• Romaine and iceberg lettuce will keep nicely in the fridge up to a week. Most other greens tend to wilt within a few days of purchasing.
• If you plan to use iceberg lettuce within a day or two, remove the core end against a flat surface; then twist and lift out the core.
Hold the head, core end up, under running water to separate the leaves. Turn right side up and drain thoroughly.
Refrigerate in a plastic bag or bowl with an airtight lid.

Serving salad
• Use a variety of greens for complimentary textures, flavours and colours. Fresh herbs can perk up even the simplest combinations.
• Mix dark greens with light, crisp with tender, and straight with curly. Red leaf (bronze) lettuce provides both colour and delicate flavour. Red cabbage and radicchio also add colour and texture.
• Blot any leftover moisture you find in leaf crevices; the drier the leaves the better. Tear, don’t cut greens into bite size pieces. In the case of dressing, just before serving pour the dressing using only enough to coat the leaves lightly and then toss.
• Alternatively, serve the salad with the dressing on the side so that each person can add the desired amount.