Homemade salad and salad dressing ideas

I'm looking for some new salad ideas and also homemade salad dressing (I don't use store bought ones).

The 2 salads I frequently eat are:

Garden salad with tuna, pecans/walnuts and and olive oil, oregano and either a wine vinegar or lime juice dressing.

Tex-mex salad usually consists of letuce, onion, tomato, corn, chicken strips (sometimes beef or beans instead) with crushed nachos/corn chips topped with guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

Originally Posted by oceania

Tex-mex salad usually consists of letuce, onion, tomato, corn, chicken strips (sometimes beef or beans instead) with crushed nachos/corn chips topped with guacamole, salsa and sour cream.

Do you like caesar salad? haha it's basically one of the only salads I will eat...

but mmm Tex mex sounds YUMMY!

Originally Posted by applecheeks

Do you like caesar salad? haha it's basically one of the only salads I will eat...

but mmm Tex mex sounds YUMMY!

I don't consider caesar a salad...lol!

Originally Posted by applecheeks

Do you like caesar salad? haha it's basically one of the only salads I will eat...

but mmm Tex mex sounds YUMMY!

it's only lettuce
like garden salad

Another, is a bean salad, not a true salad.

Beans: can bean medley mix or any mix of white and red kidney beans, fava beans, chickpeas, black beans ...pretty much whatever beans.

Vegetables: I use a bunch of colourful veggies just to make it look pretty - red bell pepper, cucumber, carrots, red onions, hand full of frozen corn (they will defrost real quick) .

I drizzled a little olive oil and squeezed 1 fresh lime.

Salt, pepper, couple of sprinkles of paprika..

One that I've been playing with recently is carmalized pears, walnuts, and prosciutto on spring mix salad. Most types of vinagrette work well with this. Sounds very fancy, but is actually really easy as you can make the pears ahead of time and just keep them in the fridge and use as needed. A friend suggested goat cheese would also be good on this (I can see it working, but personally I'm not a fan).

Another that I've eaten since childhood is what my mom calls "farmer's salad", basically just chopped up veggies (green and red peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, green onion, and radishes) mixed with cottage cheese, salt, and pepper. More than the sum of its parts, great with some crispy toast or a bagel.

I've been enjoying spinach salad, my way.

Baby spinach leaves, crisp bacon bits. Toss that with a mixture of e.v.olive oil, white wine vinegar, fresh garlic, dijon mustard, fresh tarragon. Put that on a plate, top with two slices of fresh tomato and then a poached egg.

I drizzle a bit more dressing and bacon bits on top.

Very good.

Sometimes I like a twist on regular caesar salad and add sauted mushrooms and grated jarlsberg cheese... along with big crunchy home made croutons, bacon bits and fresh made dressing with lots of garlic.

My caesar salads have been the highlight of many dinner party's. Making everything fresh is the key.