Sometimes restaurant salads are striking in design and taste. Professionals learn for years, learning from the best chefs in the world. It's no secret that far from all the recipes for gourmet dishes can be easily mastered independently, but today we will talk about those salads that can be prepared at home.
If you want to surprise guests, our small selection will help you find exactly what you need.
Greek salad for lovers of fresh vegetables
This dish is served in the best restaurants around the world. Greek salad does not need special decoration, it looks great and so, because it uses products of bright colors. Thanks to this contrast, it turns out so spectacular.
Some restaurant salads require considerable skill, but for Greek, we just need to cut into cubes and mix the following components in a bowl:
- 3 small tomatoes;
- half a head of red onion;
- medium-sized cucumber;
- half of red and yellow bell peppers;
- 140 g feta cheese (or any other homemade pickle if no feta).
Gently mix the slices and add 15 pieces of pitted black olives. Pour extra extra virgin olive oil. Salt to taste with sea salt, add a pinch of oregano and dried garlic. Sprinkle with lemon juice before serving.
Carpaccio as in a restaurant
For Russian cuisine, meat without heat treatment is atypical. But in many of the best national cuisines around the world, this ingredient is used quite widely. An example is a delicious French tartare or carpaccio salad, which can be easily prepared at home.
Wrap a fresh beef tenderloin in a cling film moistened with olive oil and put in the freezer for half an hour. We will need about 400 g of meat.
Cut as thin as possible. Ideally, you need to use a slicer.
Beat off by wrapping in cling film with a hammer with a smooth surface, not ribbed. You can use the usual rolling pin.
Arrange the meat in a circle on a serving platter, and in the middle fold a handful of fresh arugula (one and a half bunch). Pour olive oil mixed with balsamic vinegar or lemon juice. Garnish with grated Parmesan (75 g). Sprinkle with coarse pepper and sea salt before serving.
Recognizable classics - unsurpassed Caesar
Many variations of this dish are the most common salads of a restaurant level today. A true gourmet can easily make an objective picture of the restaurant by tasting Caesar salad. Unfortunately, many sought to redo the original recipe in their own way. Sometimes it brought good results (for example, anchovies appeared in the classic recipe thanks to the brother of its author), but some components have no place at all in the gourmet food. For example, mayonnaise is totally unsuitable for this dish.
You can choose absolutely arbitrary proportions, focusing on your gastronomic and aesthetic tastes. But the salad should have the following:
- croutons of white bread;
- canned anchovies;
- boiled eggs;
- boiled or baked chicken breast;
- Parmesan;
- salad (iceberg, arugula, lettuce).
These components should be approximately equally divided. You can add cherry tomatoes, capers, olives, soft cheese, shrimp to Caesar if you wish. And they season dressing salads based on Caesar with olive oil mixed with Dijon mustard, lemon juice and Worcester sauce.
Caprese with the scent of the Italian coast
There are restaurant salads, the recipes of which are not even affordable for an experienced housewife. But even a fifth grader can cook a caprese.
This dish consists of sliced mozzarella and tomatoes, taken in equal parts. The components are laid out on a serving dish and even by themselves look beautiful and appetizing. But if you squeeze them with a pinch of Italian herbs and sprinkle with a small amount of fragrant olive oil, it will turn out even more beautiful and tastier.
Little tricks of homemade salad dressing
Restaurant salads are not much different from home salads. Refuse heavy fatty sauces, try to use more different healthy and tasty greens. Do not forget about spices: oregano, dried basil, thyme, thyme. Chicken eggs can be replaced with quail eggs; they look aesthetically pleasing and unusual. But the main guarantee of success is your inspiration. Do not be afraid of experiments, and many new tastes will open before you.