I posted this a a few years ago but, now that salad season is here, I thought it worth repeating.
It seems, after viewing countless salads on Pinterest and other places, that most people tend to over-complicate what should be a simple bowl of fresh greens, good olive oil and a nice vinegar.
This is an easy, straightforward way of making a ‘salad for one’. For more servings just increase everything proportionately.
If you want recipes on how to make other salad dressings for a larger salads, I have several recipes for vinaigrettes here.
How to make a quick, main course salad for one – perfect for a summer lunch:
First, find a nice big salad bowl.
Put a dollop of Dijon-style mustard in the bottom, about 1 tsp. Mustard helps the dressing emulsify.
Add a bit of vinegar… I used sherry wine vinegar, about a tablespoon.
Whisk well.
Add a good olive oil, a little at a time, whisking after each addition.
I used about 1 1/2 tablespoons.
Add lettuce and toss well with 2 forks.
Then add all of your favorite salad stuff.
I added a chopped hard boiled egg, about 3oz (90gr) of tuna, a few cherry tomatoes, and a bit of Colby-type cheese. I drizzled a bit more sherry vinegar over the top and tucked in.
Add anything you like – cooked or raw vegetables, a bit of ham or smoked turkey, croutons… Or nothing, just the lettuce.
A healthy, filling lunch in just 5 minutes…..
Assuming the egg is already cooked and the lettuce already picked and washed. I do that in the evenings while mon mari is grilling dinner.
I’m submitting this to Javelin Warrior’s Made with Love Mondays, a collection of ‘made from scratch’ recipes
So simple, so delicious !
I love the dressing for one, Kate, and putting it at the bottom of the bowl. I’m often making salad for 2 and a big jar of vinaigrette 😉 Which is great if you want to use the same one for like a week, but less great if you want to switch things up… Great tips…
I’m always amazed at how complicated people want to make salad. I do make my own dressing and just toss everything in a bowl. I’ve read some recipes where it has taken the chef an hour to make a simple salad. Bu that time, I’m no longer hungry!
It’s to wonderful that it’s really that easy, isn’t it? I keep thinking of a salad I had at someone’s house. I complimented her on the dressing and asked what kind of vinegar she had used for it. Her answer: it was a bottled salad dressing she could only buy in the USA and she bought it by the case because she wanted to make sure she had good salad! Note that we live in Canada. (Sure, the dressing was good but it wasn’t THAT good that she couldn’t have made a decent dressing from scratch.)
Speaking of great salads, it’s finally summer here and we just had a variation your sausages, goat cheese and potatoes salad. (thymeforcookingblog.com/2010/07/salad-with-sausages-potatoes-and-chevre-weekly-menu/ ) We LOVE that salad!!
I make vinaigrette like that, too, but usually add a pinch of thyme for extra flavor. I do love thyme!
Kate, salads, like summer, should be easy.
Javelin Warrior, I make salads every night this time of year, and just enough dressing for each so we can be different. Well, I try, anyway LOL
nightsmusic, in Spain all one ever gets is a plain salad, a bottle of olive oil and one of vinegar. We got used to simple. An hour!?!?!
Elizabeth, we love it too – we’re having it for dinner tonight ;-))
Pam, I usually through a handful of herbs (whatever I’m in the mood for) in with the lettuce. My oregano has been very good this year…. And the lemon thyme.
How timely! I’ve just spent the last two weeks (off an on) looking for this very dressing technique from you. I’ve got a Post It that essentially recreated this sitting in drops of water — I hope it’s water — on the kitchen counter right now. I understand that this is a simple dressing, but it’s been bugging the heck out of me that what I’d saved a few years ago was now not found on my computer. I make my living obtaining and managing information so this failure had bugged me to no end. And, it’s summer salad season here too. Thanks, Kate!