I'll just have a salad
Recently I was asked some questions about my process making salads, so I thought I’d write a short response to cover the basics of my salad process. I think this will be the first in a larger series of posts asking what it even means to be a salad in 2017 while simultaneously extolling the virtues of salads and their superiority over all other forms of food. Without further ado, The process:
So. You’ve been on Instagram checking out snaps of colorful salads, and you’re wondering why yours don’t look like that. “How do I make one of those wonderful social media-ready salads that I love to smash the like button for so much? “ The answer to your question isn’t far. Let’s dive in and figure it out together...
Begin with the end in mind
The first thing you want to do when you’re making a salad is ask yourself what you want. Think about what elements you vibe on from the gram, and figure out how to get them in your salad. Do you like the colors, do you like the vegetable variety, do you like the dishes, the dressings, the filter? These answers to those questions will set you off on the path to salad introspection and ultimately salad catharsis, where you will emerge a newly minted salad badass who knows exactly how to turn a plate of veggies into a drool-inducing mouth shower of a salad. So, dig deep, and write that stuff down fam!
What do you need?
Now we know all the notes to hit with our salad symphony, now it’s time to write the score and list out the instrumentation. In the same way that the violin and viola are both string instruments, so too are Swiss chard and kale both cruciferous vegetables. The same way the violin and viola have similar but different jobs, kale and chard can do the same for your salad. We’re making high art here, not finger-painting. Now is a good time to make a shopping list, to make sure that your ingredients, match the list of qualities that we made earlier. Also, taking inventory before you shop can help provide the dreaded double purchase, which inevitably ends in a moldy cucumber in the back of the crisper drawer. Nobody wants that.
Let’s do this!
The French have a little saying “mise en place”, It means everything in its place. When you’re conjuring up some salad sorcery, you gotta make sure you have all the necessary ingredients before you put them together. So: check that ingredient list and make sure everyone is present and accounted for. As annoying as it may be, using small prep bowls or tupperware to store ingredients is a great way to make sure no one gets left in the cold.
Assembling the salad
It’s go time. Don’t get shy now. When you assemble a salad, there are a few points you want to hit. Do you have enough vegetables? The answer is always no, add more. Did you remember a protein? Mushrooms don’t count. Instead, holler at your homies tempeh, lentils, chickpeas, edamame, you get the drill. Is it colorful? Don’t forget that sweet pepper you got this salad. Did you ass a legit fat source in there? Slice that avocado, add that flax meal, can I get a hemp seed hallelujah? But really, is it colorful enough? If it doesn’t look like a rainbow, what are you even doing? The rainbow isn’t just for the pride flag, it also looks great adorning your plate. Besides it just might save your life. Now is NOT the time to be monochromatic.
What a nice talk we just had. I’m curious now. Show me what you come up with. Leave a comment, tag your jams on Instagram with #cruciferocious. I promise to look. I might even drool a little. It’s a salad revolution. Join or die! Literally.