12 Celebrity Chef Tips For Making The Perfect Summer Salad
There is nothing quite like eating a salad in the summertime. After all, as the weather gets warmer, a medley of fresh fruits and veggies can taste especially satisfying. The reason for this is that cold, juicy fruits and crisp, crunchy vegetables are full of water. More specifically, celery and radishes are 95% water, while strawberries and watermelons are 92% water (via UCLA Health). Even lettuce has a high water content, with romaine leaves being 95% water and iceberg lettuce 96%. This means that eating a salad on a hot summer day can actually help you stay hydrated, even as you lose precious water molecules by sweating.
Because summer salads are so great at keeping you hydrated, it can be a good idea to bring them to picnics, barbecues, and or even getaways to the beach. The only challenge, though, is trying to dream up a recipe that is more complex than, say, the same old salad you have every weekend. If you are searching for variety in your summer salad recipe, look no further than these tips and tricks from some of the best celebrity chefs out there. From Jacques Pépin's advice for making homemade salad dressing to Alex Guarnaschelli's salty secret salad ingredient, these ideas are bound to help you make the best summer salad of all time.
1. Jacques Pépin: Don't emulsify your own dressing
One of the best things you can do to elevate the quality of your summer salads is make your own dressing. And while it might not sound like the easiest task, French celebrity chef Jacques Pépin keeps the process simple. The culinary professional suggests preparing your homemade dressing with just three key ingredients: Dijon mustard, olive oil, and vinegar. Of course, he also recommends adding salt and pepper to this mix. However, in an episode of "Home Cooking with Jacques Pépin" (via YouTube), the television star emphasized that exact proportions aren't necessary for making a good salad dressing. Instead, he encouraged his viewers to make rough estimates in terms of the proportions.
While Pépin's dressing-making strategy might seem easy, the celebrity chef warns his viewers against one important pitfall. As he shared on his show, Pépin has noticed a lot of people trying to emulsify their dressings. He revealed, "One of the other mistakes that people often do ... is that they want the sauce to be totally emulsified. They don't want it to break down when it should break down."
Interestingly, there is an explanation for this strategy. As the chef explained: "When you do a salad, you mix it with [the dressing] and you want that salad to be glossy." Thus, to make a beautiful glossy salad, you shouldn't add any emulsifying ingredients to your salad dressing.
2. Julia Child: Try a lettuce other than iceberg
Iceberg lettuce can taste fantastic, and Julia Child knew it. The celebrity chef recognized just how important this type of foliage is to an American audience. On an episode of her classic TV show, "The French Chef" (via YouTube), Child even called the leaves "the all-American iceberg lettuce." Regardless, though, of how much people in the United States enjoy this crunchy variety of lettuce, Child encouraged her viewers to use other types of foliage in their salads.
As the television chef explained on her show, different types of lettuce work well with different types of salad. In Child's view, Boston lettuce, for example, is much soften than iceberg lettuce, making it perfect for a salad that isn't so crunchy. According to the celebrity chef, "It is more of a tender leaf than a crisp one." Because of this, you might try using this ingredient in a salad that already has a lot of texture in it. Add Boston lettuce to this Chinese chicken salad, for example, as a way to provide some contrast between the crunchy rice noodles and the more tender greens.
Meanwhile, if you are looking for a type of lettuce that has a bit of a bite, try using escarole. As Child revealed on her show, "It has slightly tougher leaves ... And it has a very slightly bitter taste." This can taste great in combination with sweeter ingredients, like strawberries or grilled pineapple.
3. Sunny Anderson: Use pearl couscous in your salad
If you are searching for a salad that will feel great on your tongue, look no further than Sunny Anderson's pearl couscous summertime salad. This delectable meal combines crunchy cucumbers, succulent tomatoes, and smooth strips of spinach to create a dish that involves several different textures. And if this mélange doesn't already sound exciting enough, Anderson also recommends adding pearl couscous to the mix. These little balls of pasta have a distinctively round shape and soft consistency that will add an additional layer of complexity to your salad.
The best part, though, is that you can enjoy this salad at just about any temperature. The couscous element tastes just as spectacular cold as it does hot out of the pan. As Anderson shared on a Food Network cooking demonstration (via YouTube), "I love this salad because it's good hot, warm, and cold. Right? It's perfect for summertime." Whip up this salad on a 90 degree day, chill it in the fridge for a few hours, and then serve it with a light vinaigrette dressing. Alternatively, if you find yourself facing a cooler evening, warm up your couscous salad and serve it in front of a bonfire with some healthy grilled chicken. Either way, your pearl couscous will taste amazing.
4. Gordon Ramsay: Make a Niçoise salad with anchovies in the dressing
It's not uncommon to hear of people topping their Niçoise salads with anchovies, but Gordon Ramsay has a different strategy. The celebrity chef has been known to add anchovies into his salad dressing, rather than dotting them across the top of the lettuce. As Ramsay revealed in a YouTube video, he likes to consider the anchovies "the base to the dressing." Indeed, he starts out by grinding the anchovies up with a mortar and pestle and then proceeds to mix them with oil and vinegar. The result is a sauce that's salty, oily, and even a bit fatty.
One of the major benefits to using Ramsay's anchovy advice is that putting the fish in the dressing will allow their flavor to be more evenly distributed throughout your salad. Since these fish provide one of the saltiest, most pungent flavors out there, adding whole anchovies to isolated parts of your salad can result in small yet intense bursts of flavor that might be a little overwhelming for some people. Meanwhile, if you take Ramsay's advice, the deep umami flavors of your anchovies will touch every bit of your salad — but in a less concentrated form. Ultimately, this will allow your guests to enjoy the flavor of anchovies in a more subtle way.
5. Ina Garten: Flavor your panko crumbs with wine
Summer salads often taste better with a crunch, and Ina Garten knows it. In order to add a bit of texture to your salad, the celebrity chef suggests topping your greens with some panko-breaded chicken. Here, the panko crumbs will add a crispy coat to your chicken's outer layer. As Garten shared on an episode of "The Barefoot Contessa" (via YouTube), these "Japanese bread flakes ... are really great for making [a] crisp crust."
Interestingly, however, Garten does not recommend using the traditional combination of eggs and bread crumbs to add this crackling outer layer to your chicken. Instead, she opts for something a bit more complex. The celebrity chef explained: "So, normally, you do an egg to make the crumbs stick, but I'm going to do a more flavorful version, which is 1/4 cup of white wine and 1/4 cup of Dijon mustard."
While it might seem odd to flavor your chicken with mustard and vinegar, these ingredients will actually help your meat pair well with the rest of your salad. After all, white wine vinegar and Dijon mustard are typically used in salad dressings because they taste sublime with fresh lettuce and chopped veggies. Because of this, flavoring your breaded chicken with these items will allow your meat to blend in well with the other veggies in your salad.
6. Jamie Oliver: Whip up some lime-flavored dressing
During the hotter months of the year, it can be nice to experience some lighter, more refreshing flavors. Luckily, limes provide just that. With their acidic nature and sour overtones, these fruits can be absolutely revitalizing. Because of these unique properties, Jamie Oliver suggests using limes to make a dressing for a summer salad. As the celebrity chef shared in a YouTube video, "So, I just want a fresh, fresh dressing. So for that, I want to use two lovely limes." According to Oliver, the refreshing element of limes is especially great because it pairs well with other fruits — even the sweeter ones. He explained that, for example, "Lime and mango are seriously best friends, okay."
To take a page out of Oliver's book, start out by squeezing some lime juice into a bowl. Then, add some lime zest, olive oil, hot chilies, and seasoning. For the best results, though, try to prime your limes before juicing them. In his YouTube video, Oliver advised, "If you want to get more juice out of your lime, give it a little roll [before cutting it in half]." This strategy works because it disintegrates the outer flesh of the lime, making it easier to juice (via Epicurious).
7. Padma Lakshmi: Prepare a lettuce-free salad
It's no secret that most summer salads contain lettuce. Indeed, plenty of classics — from the caesar salad to the ever-popular Greek salad – rely on this ingredient for texture and flavor. However, that doesn't mean that a dish must have lettuce to be a salad. As Padma Lakshmi reminded us in a home video posted on YouTube, salads can use different types of vegetables as their base. One example of this is calamari with checca, a meal that Lakshimi describes as "calamari pan-sautéed with some breadcrumbs and a tomato salad."
Although this delightful Italian salad doesn't rely on lettuce, it uses a tomato base that is both flavorful and refreshing. Unlike a traditional lettuce salad, Lakshmi's tomato-based alternative seems almost meaty. With its sizable chunks of tomato flesh, this option feels relatively filling and substantial.
The best part, though, is that you can add any number of toppings to your non-lettuce based salad. Lakshmi supplements hers with parsley and green chili, before adding in heavier pieces of calamari. To tie these ingredients together, she also squeezes a bit of lemon juice over the top. If you aren't a huge fan of calamari, however, don't worry. You can just as easily make a tomato salad with toppings like mozzarella cheese or grilled shrimp.
8. Giada De Laurentiis: Pour wine into your fruit salad
In some ways, fruit salads are the ultimate summer salad. Full of succulent chunks of fresh fruit, these delightful treats can be sweet, hydrating, and totally refreshing. That being said, you might not want to serve the same old fruit salad recipe over and over again. If you are looking to mix things up a bit, turn to Giada De Laurentiis for some tips. The celebrity chef departs from the classic combination of melon and berries, choosing instead to elevate her fruit salad with wine and mint.
However, De Laurentiis doesn't just dump a bottle of white wine over fruit. Instead, she combines it with sugar and heats it up over the stove, creating a sweet syrup that tastes strongly of dry wine. In this delectable mixture, the sweetness of the sugar offsets the acidity of the wine to create a sauce that is rich yet flavorful. When poured over a fruit salad, this unique combination accentuates the natural flavors of the fruits. Like the wine, these ingredients are a tad acidic and ever sour. Yet, like the sugar, they are full of natural sweetness.
The final touch, though, is the addition of fresh mint. This serves to revitalize the taste buds and prevent any one of the other elements from becoming overwhelming. As De Laurentiis shared in a Food Network video, "Italians like to finish a meal with something that cleanses the palate. Summer fruit with wine and mint will end your picnic on a refreshing note" (via YouTube).
9. Bobby Flay: Switch out pasta for quinoa
Pasta salads might be a summer classic, but Bobby Flay understands the need to mix things up. As the celebrity chef shared in a YouTube video for the Food Network, "Okay, so what do you serve [when] you want a cold or room temperature salad? Pasta salads have been very popular in this country for a really long time. If you want an alternative, I'm going to show you a quinoa salad." Effectively, Flay recommends switching out pasta for quinoa to make a summer salad that has a deeper, richer flavor.
In contrast to the simple, wheat-filled taste of pasta, quinoa provides an earthier sense of nuttiness to the mix. This gives quinoa the ability to pair easily with other complex flavors, such as freshly-chopped veggies and potent cheeses. Flay, for one, likes to combine his quinoa with asparagus, goat cheese, and black olives — three pungent ingredients that could seem overwhelming when paired with a light, white type of noodle. Alternatively, you could try our favorite quinoa salad recipe, a delightful vegetarian dish that serves black beans, corn and tomatoes on a bed of homemade quinoa. In either combination, you'll likely notice just how quinoa's grainy texture adds a uniquely complex consistency to your meal.
10. Rachael Ray: Make croutons out of pita
There is nothing quite like a summer salad that is topped with crunchy croutons, but Rachael Ray is here to elevate this popular tradition. The celebrity chef suggests giving your croutons a Mediterranean twist by making them out of pita slices. As Ray explained on an episode of "The Rachael Ray Show" (via YouTube), the process for making these unique pita croutons is actually quite simple. The TV chef revealed, "So, we start by making the torn pita. I take these very thin pita. I tear them into strips ... I throw them on a sheet tray. I spray them with olive oil. I toast them with za'atar."
According to Ray, the reason that this ingredient works so well is that it can give your salad a little oomph. On her show, Ray shared, "I always make these [pita croutons] for this salad because you get more flavor and more bang for your buck." As an added bonus, these croutons can add an interesting texture to your summer salad. Since they are made with thin pieces of pita as opposed to thicker chunks of bread, these croutons are relatively easy to bite. This allows them to add a bit of crunch to your recipe without drawing attention away from the rest of the ingredients.
11. Levi Roots: Mix sweet and spicy flavors
Sweet and salty flavors are undoubtedly some of the best, but Levi Roots wants the world to know that sweet and spicy elements also combine beautifully in a salad. The celebrity chef recommends making a summer salad using both sweet peaches and hot chilies (via YouTube). In this decadent combination, the tender sugary flesh of the peaches offsets the more firey peppers to create a salad that is flavorful yet balanced.
To ensure that the spiciness of the chilies is evenly distributed throughout the salad, Roots suggests adding this ingredient to your salad dressing. This allows the more peppers' more piquant flavor to mingle with the peaches directly, rather than in separate chunks. To take a page out of Roots' book, start out by making a basic vinaigrette. Then, add 1/2 tablespoon of minced hot peppers to the mix. The result will be oily, light, and spicy.
As for the peaches, Roots says that you can prepare them in a couple of different ways. If you are having a barbecue, you can go ahead and throw them on the grill before adding them to your salad. However, cooks who are in their own kitchens can sautée their fruit in brown sugar and butter for the sweetest, most succulent results.
12. Alex Guarnaschelli: Whip up a garnish using flavored salt
To make a summer salad that nobody will ever forget, Alex Guarnaschelli says to add salt — but not just any old salt. In a YouTube video for Closer Weekly, the "Iron Chef" judge suggested making a garnish using white wine salt. This unique ingredient can provide a vibrant burst of flavor to your salad. As Guarnaschelli explained, "Delicious. So, imagine white wine just being infused into this beautiful coarse salt. It is super tasty. Be careful because you can get snacking on just that."
Compellingly, however, Guarnaschelli uses this special salt to make a truly gourmet garnish. After pouring a small portion of this ingredient into a bowl, the celebrity chef adds toasted coriander seeds and paprika. Here, the elements complement each other almost perfectly. In Guarnaschelli's words, "You see, what I've done is the coriander has got that wonderful sort of almost floral notes. The paprika has that bit of heat. And then the Chardonnay salt has that combination of the acidity from the white wine in it and just pure salt, which we always want." The result is a sophisticated garnish that will seriously up your summer salad game.