In cooking, as in all other areas, not everything is completely combined, and arbitrary connections never give good results. In order to achieve success, first of all, attention should be given to the color scheme of the future dish. You can play in shades and halftones of the same color or resort to contrast and add to the bouquet of green leaves, composed, for example, of arugula, salad and spinach shoots, a reddish leaf of chard, a green beetle with red veins or a leafy mustard shoot with brown splashes . A contrasting combination can also be obtained by adding bright yellow, sunny orange or blue flowers.
Salad of herbs and leaves
For 4 people. Preparation: 15 minutes.
For a salad you will need:
300 g of shoots and fresh leaves: spinach, arugula, salad mustard, chard, salad, 6 twigs cress-salad or chervil, 6 branches of basil, young leaves from one twig of tarragon, 12 shoots of flowering chives, 24 blue flowers: primroses, pansy, borage, violets, etc., 6 very small fresh onions;
For salad dressing:
4 tbsp. l. extra virgin olive oil, 1 tbsp. l. wine vinegar, 1 tsp. balsamic vinegar, 1/3 tsp. pasta from anchovies, pepper.
Prepare the dressing by mixing all the ingredients in a bowl and whisking them with whisk. Wash salad leaves and herbs, dry and put in a salad bowl. Peel the bulbs, pinch a third of their green stem, and then cut them along into four pieces and add to the salad. Pour the dressing. Stir gently and place on plates. Decorate with flowers and serve immediately. Brilliantly red cherry tomatoes, bright purple or pearly-pearl rings of young onions, blue-blue flowers of borage or lollipops-pink petals of begonia.
Before you combine one with another, you should try the flavors, herbs, sprouted grains and flowers, to feel an extraordinary range of these tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, sharp, with peppercorn ... It is very important that the creation of such compositions be enjoyed by us, included in yourself element of the game. Flowers to be added to salads can also be broken in their garden - provided that the plants are not subjected to chemical treatment. For several days, they can be stored in the refrigerator, but wash before use does not follow: the water will be disastrous for their appearance and taste.
The secret of salad dressing
The simplest dressing for salads, best preserving the original taste of plants, is done in two stages (it is perfect for mixtures of two or three herbal varieties). First, lettuce is poured with vegetable oil and gently mixed - so that a thin layer of butter is spread over all the leaves and protects them from "biting" vinegar. Then spray with vinegar and mix again. Salt the salad sprinkled right before serving, and quite a bit: just a few grains are enough. You can cook a more sophisticated and refined sauce. A sophisticated selection of components and a special order of mixing will give a refined oiliness and bring a touch of secrecy. It all depends on the selection of components: for example, you can mix several types of oil, vinegar, add various spices, mustard, etc. The choice of these elements is so wide and varied that we can invent a new dressing for salad every day.
Salad of green tomatoes and avocado with lime
For 4 people.
Preparation: 15 minutes.
For a salad you will need: 2 avocados, 4 green tomatoes, 2 limes, 1 fresh green hot pepper, 2 tbsp. l. berries of red currant, 12 seedlings of soybeans or other legumes, 120 leaves of purple basil, 20 pink flowers: begonias, rose petals, etc., 2 tbsp. l. cold pressed olive oil, sea salt.
Wash all the components of the salad. Take a lime and a half and squeeze out the juice, and cut the remaining halves into thin slices. Peel off the avocado peel, slice them with thin longitudinal slices and drizzle with lime juice; cut the tomatoes into 3 mm thick slices, and pepper - thin oblique rings. Spread out all the ingredients on plates, sprinkle with olive oil, salt, add currant, basil and sprouts, decorate with flowers and immediately serve. To this salad is good to serve thin slices of toasted bread.
Salad of green vegetables with onion sprouts
For 4 people.
Preparation: 15 minutes. Varka: 2 minutes.
For salad, you need: 200 g of shoots of green asparagus , 2-5 g of green mini zucchini, 75 g of sugar peas in pods, 50 g of peeled fresh green peas, 50 g of fresh small beans, peeled from the pod, 1 2 leaves of fresh mint, 20 sheets of fresh marjoram, 2 pinch of sprouted onion seeds, 20 white flowers: primrose, pansies, jasmine, etc.
For salad dressing: 3 tbsp. l. almond oil 11 tbsp. l. hazelnut oil, 2 tbsp. spoons of honey vinegar, 1 tsp. acacia honey, 1/2 tsp. mustard, salt, pepper.
Beat the ingredients in the mixer. Wash the vegetables, throw them into the boiling salted water for 2 minutes, flip to a colander and place in very cold water so that they retain their beautiful green color. Then throw it back into the colander, put it in a salad bowl and pour the dressing. Stir gently and place on plates. Sprinkle with mint leaves and marjoram, season with seeds of onion, decorate with flowers and serve immediately.