In order to cut down on wasted food and keep everyone happy, I sometimes set up my own homemade salad bar and let my guests and family choose what they want. Here's my list of the top five ingredients to include in your homemade salad bar.
You can easily pick up several bags of different salads at the grocery store and serve them in large bowls. You can also do it the old fashion way if time permits and buy individual heads of lettuces and tear them up yourself. An iceberg mix, baby spinach leaves and mixed garden greens are usually what I start with.
Offer a choice of tomatoes on your salad bar. Garden grown are the best but you can also find a good variety at most grocery stores. Put out some slices of larger tomatoes as well as the petite grape or cherry varieties that don't need slicing.
Cheese toppings are wonderful on salads. To please everyone set out some crumbled blue cheese as well as a variety of shredded cheeses like parmesan, cheddar, asiago etc.
Put out a selection of ingredients that crunch when you chew them. This could include croutons, nuts, seeds, etc. The crunchy texture will add an interesting element to any salad.
Offer your guests and family members a variety of salad dressings to choose from. Be sure to include some creamy styles of dressing like ranch or blue cheese as well as vinaigrettes in both savory and sweet flavors.
Serving salad at home in salad bar style can be a fun way to enjoy a multitude of tasty ingredients by allowing everyone to create their own personalized salad. Any leftovers can be stored in the fridge and eaten in the next few days when your short on cooking time.
Great list! A homemade salad bar sounds fun!
And don't forget the raisins; I love raisins on my salad. Great list, now I'm hungry!
Love doing this, after reading this great reminder I'm considering making tonight a salad night. =D
I love making a salad with all the extras on the side so that people can choose what they want on their salads. Great job on this list.
What a nice idea to have a salad bar at home with all the trimmings. Thank you.
Great list to have a homemade salad bar. I like combining the bags of lettuce because I am too lazy to do it the old fashioned way.
select one here...