Easy Southwestern Salad

[Chris_]

After spending four bucks for a salad at the deli (a last-minute splurge) tonight, I have what I think is a simple, easy, and quick salad that can be served for dinner 3-4 nights a week.  It's easy and tasty but requires a few things including a few small Tupperware containers (2- to 3- ounces) and a salad spinner.

Do you wonder why the bags of salad mix you buy at the store go bad in your refrigerator before you even open them?  It's because of water.  Buy a salad spinner and you can cut and store a plain head of iceberg lettuce for a week. 

Do you know how restaurants manage to serve so many crispy, fluffy, fresh salads all day long, every day?  They have a salad spinner.  The one they use is a bit larger than the mail-order kind.  It looks like a large, angry garbage can that can spin a dozen heads of lettuce at once.  I've used the big ones... you have to hold on to them or they'll run away from you if you're not careful.

[youtube=425,350]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4s0E_fEPkIo[/youtube]

The last thing you'll do is chop and wash a head of iceberg lettuce in the salad spinner.  You want to do this last because that's where you'll store the lettuce in the refrigerator while you're using it.  It keeps it dry and clean.  Everything else can stay in a Tupperware container.  A typical salad is:

Iceberg lettuce (with shredded carrots and spinach)
Crispy bacon (chopped)
Salsa (drained)
Shredded cheese (strong cheddar)
Ranch (with blackened seasoning)
Hard-boiled eggs
Corn (cooked, drained, and chilled)
Black beans (cooked, drained, and chilled)
Marinated chicken, steak, or pork (sliced and served cold)
Fritos Corn Chips


Cooked meat (sliced and refrigerated) is usually good for 3-4 days in the refrigerator.  You could do most of this ahead of time like restaurants normally do and throw everything together when you get home.  Most restaurants usually have people show up between 6-8am but don't open until 11 because they're cutting vegetables, cooking meat, and baking pies.  Thats how they serve all that food when you show up and order it.

[Chris_]

Soy sauce marinade

1 cup soy sauce
1/2 cup sugar
1 Tbsp. crushed garlic

[Chris_]

Ranch seasoning

1 Tbsp. paprika
1 Tbsp. cumin
1 tsp. cayenne pepper
1 tsp. powdered garlic


An average serving of salad dressing is 2 ounces (a full shotglass is about 2 oz.).  I would add a teaspoon of seasoning to an ounce of dressing.

[Chris_]

I think I'm going to start doing this.  It's easier than making dinner every night.

All I need is a salad spinner.

[thundley4]

I buy the bagged salad mix when it's on sale and it doesn't go bad on me.  I make a meal of it for myself. Half the bag in a large bowl with shredded Cheddar cheese , ham cubes, and some sliced boiled eggs smother with whatever dressing catches my eye, usually western or Italian.   Not healthy but it is good.

[Ballygrl]

We threw out our salad spinner because we kept forgetting to use it. I did buy these green salad fresh bags to keep salad and vegetables longer and they seem to work.

[Chris_]

I'm lazy and stupid... every time I buy a bag of salad mix, it sits in the refrigerator and never gets used.  I liked the salad spinners at work (the large, angry garbage cans).  They made it so much easier.

If I had a bowl of salad ready to use, I would probably go for that before the bag.

[Ballygrl]

I'm lazy and stupid... every time I buy a bag of salad mix, it sits in the refrigerator and never gets used.  I liked the salad spinners at work (the large, angry garbage cans). They made it so much easier.

Until you get a salad spinner, pick up a box of the Hefty green vegetable bags and see how you like them.

[Chris_]

The spicy Ranch and Fritos were pretty tasty.  I use the marinade and seasoning for a lot of other recipes.

[Wineslob]

Colander, drop in greens, shake.

[Karin]

Not the same, Wineslob.  My mom had a salad spinner, it was great.  The dressing would cling to the leaves perfectly. 
Those bags of salad mix cause marital fights.  Why didn't you tell me that was there, and now it's gone bad!!!  Well open your eyes and look!!!   

[Chris_]

  That's why I like the salad spinner... it's there, you can't miss it.  It does a great job of drying out the lettuce.  Any water at all is just going to cause it to rot.

I don't remember how many heads of lettuce come in a case... it was at least a dozen, usually more and the average restaurant uses a case a day for salads.  I hated doing salad prep.