GUIDES & TIPS

Dressing up: three tips you need to know to improve your salads

The key to stand-out salads is all in the dressing. Successful dressings are about balance, quantity and timing. Here we talk you through these essential tips for creating flavour-packed salads all summer long.

Balance: acidity, sweetness, saltiness and spice

Balancing your dressing is all about tasting it. If you don’t taste it, you’ll have no idea what the final result will be. You need to determine the right levels of acidity, sweetness, saltiness and spice at the prep stage so that you can gauge the finished result. Below is a guide for what ingredients you might use to create these flavours in your dressings:

Acidity: lemon, lime, sherry vinegar, white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice vinegar
Sweetness: tahini, pomegranate molasses, dates, orange, honey, maple syrup, mirin, balsamic vinegar
Saltiness: salt, anchovies, miso, doenjang, soy sauce, sesame oil, parmesan
Spice: mustard, chilli, gochujang, black pepper, garlic, raw onion

When you’re mixing it, a good dressing needs to be ever-so-slightly punchier than you actually want it to taste. That’s because when you pour it onto the water-heavy ingredients, it will be naturally toned down. When in doubt, err on the side of more flavour. You can always loosen it up with a splash of water if needed.

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Quantity: match the quantity of your dressing to your ingredients

It sounds obvious, but salads are often groupings of quite simple ingredients. It is really the dressing that’s doing the heavy-lifting when it comes to flavour here, which is why how much dressing you use is critical. You want each bite to have a hit of sweet, sour, salty and spicy. Large, water-heavy vegetables like lettuces, tomatoes, cucumbers and radishes can all take plenty of dressing.

Timing: dress at the final moment

The best dressing in the world will be rendered a bit pointless if your salad turns limp and lifeless because you dressed it too early. It’s important to keep in mind whether you want your ingredients to soften up and amalgamate, like you might a potato salad; or if you want everything to stay bite-fresh, and retain texture. If you want a softening up of ingredients, dressing an hour or two ahead can be beneficial. If you want bite and freshness, it’s best to dress salad just a minute or so before you want to eat it.

Three excellent salads to try this season

Now you've got the knowhow, put it into practice with these three summery salad recipes.

Thai Tomato Salad

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Asparagus and butter bean salad

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Dressed

courgette salad

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