No dressing please!

It has become a big personal battle for me. Should I blame my nutritionist who biased me against creamy dressings when she highlighted the humongous amounts of calories they contain? No, the explanation is plain, simple and all about the taste: I enjoy a salad with crispy lettuce and feel the dressing just kills it.

I love that crunchy feeling when you bite into fresh lettuce. At culinary school they taught how to dress a salad. I almost remember Chef Ken, telling me not to add the dressing until I was about to serve the salad. It should just coat the salad. He could not emphasize enough how with salads, moderation was the key.

At home, I never buy dressings. I always have a good balsamic vinegar and extra virgin olive oil on hand. When I prepare salads, my favorite dressing is just a drizzle of each, with some freshly cracked peppers and some grains of salt. You should just add enough vinegar and oil to coat the lettuce, and you will know if you added just the perfect amount of dressing if your salad bowl is practically left with very little extra dressing. This for me, makes a perfect salad. It lets you taste all the flavors of the vegetables, balancing every single ingredient, but above all, making the salad just taste very fresh. For me salads are about all about freshness and good quality ingredients.

My favorite salad

4 cups of lettuce ( lettuce mix or how about some arugula)
2 sliced tomatoes
¼ onion cut in slivers
1 bunch of chopped fresh herbs (love combining basil, parsley and dill)

For the Dressing

Drizzle of Balsamic Vinegar
Drizzle of Olive Oil
Salt and Pepper