How to Get Compliments on Your Summertime Salads

Summertime is a great time of year for cool freshening foods. I usually prefer to cook and eat fewer hot meals in the summertime. That is why salads are perfect for dinner!

I am not a professional chef. Nor do I host elaborate dinner parties. However, I have continuously had comments on the tasty garden salads that I make.

My father was sick with cancer and craved salads often during the summer. I spent many nights making him a salad for supper. Each night, he would comment that I had made the best salad that he had ever eaten.

At the time, I did not think much about his comments. I figured that daddies were supposed to give praise and positive comments to their little girls.

However, later we had a few guests over and I made a salad to go with the meal. Again the comments came.

Not long ago, I took a salad over to a friend's house to compliment her homemade pizza. The salad again won the complements I had heard before.

My final salad compliments came only a few nights ago. We had a dinner guests and I again made a salad. After commenting on how seconds on hamburger steak could be eaten, I was told that seconds on the salad were needed instead. Therefore, I decided to write an article to describe my method of making a garden salad.

The first main rule to making a great salad is the type and layering of ingredients.

I begin by shredding lettuce in the bottom of the bowl. Yes, I shred the lettuce. Many people buy prepackaged salad mix. I find that buying a head of lettuce tastes better and is also cheaper.

I then chop up a head of broccoli. Cut the stems short and use the florets. Make sure that your pieces are small. Salads are much easier to eat if the veggies are cut small.

I thin cut up firm tomatoes. I like to choose tomatoes that have a firm texture but are also red ripe. If the tomato is soft, it will be too juicy and mushy for cubing for the salad. Again cut small pieces.

Next I add diced green peppers. Not many but enough to add some flavor.

Slice about three or four hard boiled eggs into the mixture. Include the yolk.

I peel and slice a cucumber. After slicing off cucumber rings, I then dice the cucumber slices into smaller pieces by cutting length and width wise across each slice.

I then add a generous helping of finely shredded cheese. I like to use a mixture of Cheddar, Colby, etc.

The key to my great salad is the final item added. The secret to the taste is adding salad toppings by McCormick. This mixture added flavor and crunch to the salad.

After all of the ingredients are added, I toss the salad to mix slightly. If you prefer you can leave the salad layered.

Top the salad off with homemade dressing, I prefer Ranch. Homemade dressing accents a salad much better than store bought kinds.