The House Salad

I make a salad pretty much every night of the week not because I don't know what else to make but because I love salads. But not any type of salad, I love my salad, or should I say my Nana's salad. And it's so simple and fresh. I'm kind of a snob when it comes to salad, I don't do bottled dressings and I don't like salad from a bag. I mean I'll eat it if someone else is serving it but I can taste the difference. My salad spinner gets more use than any other tool in my kitchen - although my microplane grater is a close second. There are a couple basics about salad.

1) Don't reach for the bagged lettuce - sure it will save you some time but you'll definitely sacrfice in flavor. My favorite lettuce is red leaf, romaine being my second choice. The only lettuce I'll buy bagged is spinach. And you'll never see a head of iceburg lettuce in my house!

2) Toss those bottled salad dressing - I hate pretty much any bottled salad dressing. I normally just use red wine vinegar and olive oil, or at least start with this as a base and build from there by adding shallots, garlic, lemon, etc.

3) Red onions - I don't eat red onions and neither does Brian. But they're essential to the flavor of the salad. Once my salad is washed, I'll put the lettuce in the bowl with a couple slivers of red onions and let it sit for a couple minutes before I dress the salad!

4) Sea salt - not regular salt, not kosher salt, SEA salt is a must. Not much, just a little to give it that extra flavor. I have been known to use Crazy Janes salt, which is basically sea salt with additional herbs.

5) Toppings - typically the O'Neil house salad has one topping, FETA CHEESE. When Brian is not looking I'll put goat cheese in there instead to spice it up. But really there are tons of things you can add to this salad - my favorties being avacados and home made croutons.

6) The bowl - it really does matter what bowl you serve your salad in. It might sound crazy but my salad tastes different depending on what bowl I use. The typical salad bowl I use is shallow, which allows the dressing to be evenly distributed, instead of all running to the bottom of the bowl.

I warned you I was a salad snob.