How To Make A Great (And Different) Dinner Salad

Tasty Surprise Ingredients Will Make You Say ‘Wow!’

By Kevin Wilkerson, PubClub.com Foodie Blogger

I love a having salad with dinner. In fact, I make one every night I make dinner.

What I don’t like is a basic salad. I consider it a waste of time. Instead, I want something different and exciting and in this blog post, I will tell you how to make a great (and different) dinner salad.

I call it the PubClub Surprise Salad.

The Ingredients

As I like a crunch to my salads, I like to use cabbage instead of lettuce. If you use the latter (or mix it in with cabbage; that’s fine, too) be sure and use red leaf or green leaf. The regular head of lettuce contains no nutritional value whereas the red and green leave varieties can be healthy. Red leaf lettuce, for instance, is rich in antioxidants and vitamins A and K. It can help to lower blood pressure, aid weight loss, and boost the heart.

Okay, now that we have the base ingredient out of the way, it’s onto the other items I put into my salads. They are: chopped raw yellow onions, tomatoes, nuts (almonds are great) and good-quality cheese. The latter is a key to adding flavor to a salad. I like to use gouda or smoked cheddar.

This all sounds pretty basic, right? Well, just wait, for I also add in a slice hard boiled egg. That really elevates a basic salad to something special. And speaking of special, I’m not done yet.

The ‘Special Part’

Here’s the key to my tasty salads: I sautee mushrooms and more chopped onions in olive oil. To this, I add either small cubes of bread, which become like croutons, or broken up saltine crackers, to provide a nice crunch.

I then pour that on top of the other ingredients. This REALLY takes it over the top, the hot parts mixing with the cold parts. This will have your taste buds dancing in your mouth.

Salad Dressing

I don’t use any salad dressing (they are all fatty, anyway). Instead, I put more olive oil into the hot frying pan from the sauteing and pour that over the top and through the salad. That melts the cheese and really brings the salad to life.

I then top with seasoning. Ymmm!

Seasoning

Generally I use pepper but if you have Italian seasoning, that adds a different kind of taste. Use them on different nights for a variety.

Additional Ingredients

Sometimes when I’m going all-out healthy, I’ll add in garbanzo beans (chick peas to some people), or even sautee some corn.

If that seems like a lot of work for a side salad, it really only take about five minutes. Plus, if you add some meat to it (or just more vegetables if you’re a vegetarian), and put it in a bigger bowl and use that as my dinner.

When I do this, then I’ll head up a couple tortillas and have a fantastic full meal.

Enjoy!