The Best Tossed Salad
The best-tossed salad is prepared with fresh ingredients we all love and enjoy. Fresh lettuce or leafy spring mix, tossed with cherry tomatoes, seedless cucumbers, scallions, apples, carrots, and radishes is the perfect combination of vegetables for your favorite, pork roast, beef roast, or chicken roast.
A tossed salad, in my opinion, is the perfect no-fuss side dish you can make in less than 30 minutes. It contains ingredients you have on hand and is easy to whip up, add your favorite salad dressings and just enough time to set the table.
In the Caribbean, salads are usually made with lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Many people will add scallions, onions, apples, and other garden edible vegetable leaves. Any way any family makes this salad is considered their signature dish. The way the veggies are sliced or cut, and let’s not forget the salad dressing or vinaigrette, as some will call it, is also a signature dish. A simple extra-virgin oil, lemon juice, fresh garlic, salt, and pepper is always the way to go. Remember always to keep it simple!
The ingredients you will need to make your favorite tossed salad
- Mixed Greens or Plain Lettuce: store bought spring mix salad is the best option. You can also use iceberg lettuce, romaine, butterhead or arugula mixed with baby spinach.
- Cucumber: I prefer seedless cucumbers. Have you tried hydroponic cucumbers? They are delicious! Slice the cucumber thin and add the slices to the salad.
- Radishes: a super vegetable with great health benefits. They are rich in antioxidants and minerals like calcium and potassium. You only need about 3 – 4 radishes sliced – super crunchy and packed with flavor.
- Tomatoes: a fruit and a vegetable at the same time. I use cherry tomato to make life easier. You can use large tomatoes as well – cut them in cubes so they are easy to eat.
- Scallions: a family of the onion. Can you believe that scallion has about 10% of the fiber you need for the whole day? For this ingredient, you will need about 3 – 4 nice scallion stalks thinly sliced – a slight taste of onion and packed with flavor.
- Carrots: another super food. You will need about 1 – 2 carrots depending on the size. I use a vegetable peeler to create string of carrots to add color and flavor.
- Apples: add some natural sweetness with apples. Sliced or cubed, what ever way you want to cut them, they are a great addition to salads and goes well Kale salad.
How to make the tossed salad
Do it as the Caribbean people do. Wash, cut, slice, and add everything into a bowl and toss and mix well. Add your salad dressing, and you are on your way to enjoying a healthy, decadent, and healthy salad.
For the salad dressing, be simple. Homemade is always better. Or you can toss the salad with freshly ground black pepper and salt (Himalayan Salt preferably). The salt and pepper act as a flavor enhancer and marries all the other ingredients’ flavors. It is a superb way to enjoy a salad with freshly cut leafy vegetables.
Tips and Notes for tossed salad
- This salad can be prepared in advance and stored in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.
- Add other ingredients such as spinach, broccoli florets and watercress.
- Use a salad spinner to remove the water from the leafy vegetables after washing.
- Add other fruits such as oranges, dries cranberries, and grapes.
- For flavor enhancer, add bacon, smoked salmon, garlic shrimp, chicken breasts, olives, capers, cheese, or croutons.
More Salad recipes to enjoy
- DELICIOUS KALE, ROASTED BEETS, AND CARROTS SALAD
- EASY GARDEN KALE SALAD WITH LEMON DRESSING
- TUNA SALAD WITH ROMAINE, AVOCADO, AND POMEGRANATE
- EASY AND HEALTHY BROCCOLI AND GRAPE SALAD
Sources:
- https://www.webmd.com/food-recipes/scallions-health-benefits
- https://www.webmd.com/diet/health-benefits-radish#1
The Best Tossed Salad
Ingredients
- 8 cups Mixed Greens or Plain Lettuce Iceberg Lettuce, Romaine, Butterhead or Arugula mixed with baby spinach.
- 1 cup cucumber: seedless cucumbers.
- 3- 4 radishes sliced
- 1 cup cheery tomatoes halves, or regular tomatoes cut into cubes
- ½ cup scallions thinly sliced
- 1 – 2 carrots
- 1 – 2 apples sliced or cubed
Ingredients for the Dressing
- ¼ cup olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar apple cider, or balsamic
- 1 fresh garlic clove crushed thinly
- Seasoned with salt and pepper to taste
- 1 teaspoon honey agave or cane sugar, optional
Instructions
- Wash, cut, slice, or cube, all vegetables.
- Place all salad ingredients in a large bowl.
- Add all the salad dressing ingredients in a small bowl, and with a whisk, mix until all the ingredients are well blended.
- Toss the salad with the dressing and serve immediately.
Notes
- This salad can be prepared in advance and stored in the refrigerator for a few hours before serving.
- Add other ingredients such as spinach, broccoli florets, and watercress.
- Use a salad spinner to remove the water from the leafy vegetables after washing.
- Add other fruits such as oranges, dried cranberries, and grapes.
- For flavor enhancer, add bacon, smoked salmon, garlic shrimp, chicken breasts, olives, capers, cheese, or croutons.
Nutrition
Please keep in mind that nutritional information is a rough estimate and can vary greatly based on the products used.
Nutrition info is automatically generated and provided as a courtesy and as an estimate only.
