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Salads are a delicious and healthy dish with a huge variety in preparation. However, cooking them often takes a long time. These simple tips can help you save time and add nutritional value to your salad.

  1. MORE COLOR. If you’ve been eating the classic set of iceberg, cherry tomato and feta cheese for a long time, it’s time to change something. Add more colored vegetables or fruits to the salad.
  2. ADD CANNED CHICKPEAS. Firstly, you will save time on cooking regular chickpeas or other ingredients, and secondly, it is delicious! The aroma and flavor of the product can even make you skip the salad dressing.
  3. ADD CEREALS. While many people think that salads should only consist of vegetables or fish, this is not the case. Cereals like quinoa or brown rice will make your salad tastier, fuller, and more fiber-filled.
  4. COOK VEGETABLES IN ADVANCE. If you love eating your favorite salad for dinner, but taking every ingredient out of the refrigerator, washing and cleaning it makes you twitchy, cook the vegetables ahead of time. In your free time, wash and cut them into a container, and when you feel like eating, just take out and mix.
  5. PREPARE SALADS BEFORE. To save even more time, use the previous tip, but do so with the ingredients for several salads so that you have enough for a couple of days.
  6. STORE THE GREENS CORRECTLY. Regardless of whether you buy lettuce and greens from the market or supermarket, proper storage will extend the shelf life of the product. To prevent the leaves from withering or drying, place them in a plastic wrap or container.
  7. FREEZE INGREDIENTS. Sorting and putting food in the freezer in advance will extend their life and save time for yourself. All you need to do is take out and defrost / reheat the food.
  8. MARINATE TOFU. There are tons of easy recipes for pickling tofu. This procedure will add flavor to the salad and shorten the cooking time.
  9. USE A SPECIAL VEGETABLE CLEANER NOT A KNIFE. Firstly, it peels vegetables faster and better, and secondly, if you have a specially shaped cleaner, you will add a little creativity to the salad, even if you get just star-shaped cucumbers.
  10. PREPARE SALAD CONDITIONING YOURSELF. It tastes better and has less calories. The procedure does not take long – choose the ingredients to taste and mix in a blender.
  11. KEEP DRY INGREDIENTS DRY. If your salad includes nuts or croutons, it is best to add them immediately before eating. Dry lettuce leaves in a drier to avoid excessive amounts of water in the lettuce.

Salad is a light, tasty and nutritious dish. Salads can be independent dishes or serve as a side dish for meat, fish or poultry. Both its taste and appearance depend on how the salad is prepared, and therefore it is worth following some simple rules for preparing salads.

  1. It is better to cook salads in glass, enamel or ceramic dishes.
  2. Vegetables for salad are cut there finer, the denser their tissue.
  3. All raw vegetable salads are best prepared just before serving, rather than beforehand.
  4. It is better to heat vegetables in a gentle way: either cook in a little water, or simmer in a little fat.
  5. It is better to cook potatoes, beets and carrots immediately before preparing the salad unpeeled, this way vitamin C is better preserved.
  6. Cooked vegetables should be stored unpeeled, and peeled immediately before preparing the salad.
  7. Products cooked for salad must be cooled. Do not mix warm foods with cold ones.
  8. Quick-frozen vegetables need to be cooked without defrosting for 10-15 minutes.
  9. For dressing salads, in addition to sour cream and mayonnaise, vegetable oil is used in pure form or mixed with vinegar, salt, sugar and pepper. To give different flavors, mustard, a variety of hot and tomato sauces are added to salad dressings.
  10. Sauces and condiments not only improve the flavor of the salad. The fat in them protects vitamins from destruction. Salt should be salted before serving, and vegetable oil is added to the salad only after it has been salted, vinegar and pepper have been added.
  11. Salad should be seasoned with mayonnaise or sour cream just before meals.
  12. Ready-made salads are transferred from the bowl in which it was seasoned to clean salad bowls, trying not to stain the edges of the dishes, and decorated with herbs or decorations cut from the products that make up the salad.

These tips will definitely come in handy!

  1. The carotene contained in carrots is converted into vitamin A in the human body, which is why it is called provitamin A.
  2. By changing the dressing, you can radically change the taste of the salad.
  3. Parsley and celery greens serve not only for decoration, but also for fortification of various dishes.
  4. Salads from delicate ingredients are not mixed with a spoon, but gently shaken.
  5. If you boil unpeeled potatoes in salted water, the skin will not burst.
  6. Chopped onions wilt quickly and lose their aroma, as the essential oils they contain are very volatile.

The range of vegetables used in the diet should be as varied as possible. It should be borne in mind that different types of vegetables and fruits vary greatly in their taste, nutritional and dietary benefits.

  1. Withered greens can be refreshed if they are dipped in cold water for 1 hour, to which 1 tbsp. l. vinegar.
  2. Parsley will become more aromatic if it is rinsed in warm rather than cold water before use.
  3. Potatoes, as well as vegetables for salads and vinaigrettes, are preferable to cook without peeling so that they retain nutrients.
  4. It is not recommended to pour out the water in which the peeled vegetables were cooked. This broth contains many beneficial substances and can be used to make a soup or sauce.
  5. From the time of Ancient Egypt to the present day, medicine has used garlic as a medicine against a number of diseases. It contains special bactericidal substances – phytoncides, which destroy many types of pathogenic bacteria.
  6. If the sauerkraut is too sour, then it must be placed in a colander and rinsed with cold water.
  7. A fresh apple will add a spicy flavor to the herring salads.
  8. Fresh herbs will last longer if stored in the refrigerator in a sealed plastic bag.

Vegetables, due to the presence of organic acids and essential oils, have a pleasant taste and allow you to diversify your food.

  1. The daily use of bell pepper has a beneficial effect on the state of the body, since this fruit contains calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, iron, aluminum, as well as vitamins B1, B2, C, PP, etc.
  2. Vitamin A and carotene are preserved when vegetables are cooked, but are destroyed by acid.
  3. To carefully remove the core from tomatoes, it is recommended to use only sharp, thin-bladed knives.
  4. The flavoring qualities of salads largely depend on the dressing. They are seasoned with mayonnaise, sour cream, lemon juice or vegetable oil.
  5. For dishes with radish, it is advisable to serve sauces with a base of vegetable oil.
  6. The contrasting combination of yellow, green and red bell peppers, as well as white pieces of feta cheese will give the salad an appetizing look.
  7. Fresh peeled vegetables should be thoroughly rinsed under cold running water before slicing.

It would seem that it is difficult to prepare a salad! Remember, there is still a comic saying on this topic that, they say, a real woman can simply make a scandal, a hat and a salad out of nothing? However, in reality everything turns out a little differently. And vegetables with herbs, served as a salad, taste completely different at home than in a cafe or restaurant – whether the same combination of ingredients is on the plate. What’s the catch?
Experienced chefs have their own little tricks and life hacks for preparing salads, even the simplest ones.

Salad with fish. Fresh vegetable salad with salmon fish fillet. Fish salad with salmon fillet and fresh vegetables on plate
  1. The nuts in the salad “sound” delicious. They give us strength and energize. And in addition to their benefits, they are also tasty in a salad, set off with greens. A small amount of nuts can give a salad of even the simplest ingredients a piquant taste.
  2. Low-fat cheese. Feta, mozzarella, feta cheese – cheeses that will add flavor to the salad, and will not be affected by unnecessary sentiments on the waist. Another good option is cottage cheese. In general, if the standard cheese fat is 50-60g or 50-60% on dry matter, then for fitness salads look for cheeses that are low in fat to 30 grams of fat on dry matter.
  3. Sesame seeds as a finishing touch. The salad will look more aesthetically pleasing and appetizing if sprinkled with sesame seeds. But this spice improves not only the appearance. Sesame nourishes our body with calcium, which strengthens bones.
  4. Compatibility. Experiment! But only within the framework of the ingredients combined with each other.

These tips will come in handy!

  1. For vinaigrettes, pickled onions are used.
  2. For salads, it is better to use more juicy, sweet onions.
  3. Radish salads can be seasoned with onions, lightly fried in vegetable oil.
  4. You can put a crust of rye bread grated with garlic in the salad for a few minutes. Before serving, the crust is removed, but a subtle, subtle smell of garlic remains.
  5. In sauerkraut salad instead of apples, you can put slices of oranges or tangerines.
  6. When using unpeeled cucumbers, you must first taste a piece of the peel and make sure that it does not taste bitter. If it tastes bitter, the cucumbers should be peeled.

Useful tips when preparing salads to make the salads tasty, beautiful and healthy.

  1. All vegetables for the salad must be cooked separately. Cooked together, they lose their taste and color.
  2. In many salads, potatoes are one of the indispensable ingredients. For this purpose, it is better to cook it in a peel. Beforehand, the tubers must be thoroughly washed (preferably with a brush), filled with hot water, salt (for 1 liter of water – 10 g of salt), brought to a boil and cooked under a lid over low heat until tender. The cooked tuber is easy to pierce.
  3. Potatoes for salad can be boiled with the addition of a tablespoon of vinegar. In this case, it does not darken.
  4. You can steam the peeled potatoes, and to raise the temperature, add 1 – 2 tablespoons of salt to the water.
  5. Fresh vegetables and herbs that make up salads must be washed very well (it is better to wash greens in a large amount of water – afloat). First, they need to be poured with cold water and kept for several minutes so that the motes and sand are soaked. Washed and sorted vegetables and herbs should be rinsed again with water.
  6. The ingredients in salads must be absolutely fresh and well chilled.
  7. When preparing salads from raw vegetables, washed vegetables should be cut immediately before meals and immediately poured with lemon juice or vinegar, which retain vitamin C. A green salad, cut and left in the sun, loses 70 – 80% of its vitamin C in one minute.
  8. Salads will be tastier if the potatoes are boiled in a little water.
  9. Boiled beetroot cut for vinaigrette, before combining with other vegetables, should be greased with vegetable oil, then the vinaigrette will turn out to be more beautiful.
  10. Cucumbers for salad may not be peeled, but they must be washed thoroughly. This should be done just before serving to keep the cucumbers fresh.

These tips will definitely come in handy if you want to be able to cook the most delicious salads!

  1. The overly sour taste of sorrel can be softened by cooking with other herb, cottage cheese, apples, or nuts.
  2. Dandelion leaves for salads are best harvested in spring, later bitterness appears in them. It is better to pick gently green, young leaves.
  3. So that dandelion leaves do not taste bitter, they are put in water for a while.
  4. Withered lettuce leaves can be refreshed by holding them for 15 minutes in warm water.
  5. Withered greens of dill, celery and parsley will become fresh again if you put them in water with vinegar for an hour.
  6. Parsley, dill and mint will stay fresh for several days in dry weather when placed in a tightly closed dry container.

Be sure to take advantage of these secrets!

  1. So that the skin of the “jacket” potato does not burst into the water, add a few drops of vinegar.
  2. To make the potatoes cook faster, you need to add a little oil to the water.
  3. In order for the potatoes to be crumbly and tasty, they must be boiled in salted water and over low heat.
  4. The potatoes must be cooked over low heat so that the starch swells evenly, with high heat the potatoes burst.
  5. Potato patties will be fuller with a little baking soda.
  6. Lemon balm is used fresh for the preparation of vegetable salads, vegetable sauces and soups.
  7. To prevent the nettle leaves from burning, they must be rinsed with boiling water.