There is always a place for a good salad on the table.
You should not neglect the benefits of this dish, especially since many salads are prepared very quickly.
Even if it is even a simple salad, whipped up from everything that was found in the refrigerator, it will still please relatives and help feed the guests who suddenly arrived.
General principles for making a simple salad
This dish can be prepared from vegetables or fruits, with the addition of meat or fish ingredients; creating simple salads in a hurry, you can completely surrender to creativity, using expensive or cheap products, combining two or three or almost a dozen ingredients. Nevertheless, there are classic combinations that should not be neglected when preparing even simple salads in a hurry.
Such combinations include, for example, the following:
• Cucumber with fish;
• Cucumber with sausage;
• Egg with cheese;
• Citrus fruits with chicken;
• Pineapple with chicken;
• Tomato with cheese;
• Tomato with garlic;
• Celery with apple;
• Carrots with dried apricots;
• Chicken with prunes and others.
Strictly speaking, from these combinations, adding another 1 - 2 ingredients and dressing, it is already quite possible to cook a simple salad in a hurry.
Various dressings are used: vegetable oil, sour cream, natural yogurt, mayonnaise, purchased or homemade, a variety of homemade sauces based on yogurt or vegetable oil, vinegar, lemon juice.
Here are examples of salad dressings that will give a pleasant taste and maybe even some charm to simple salads in a hurry:
• A spoonful of olive oil, a spoonful of lemon juice and half a spoonful of grain mustard;
• Natural yogurt, a little mustard and ketchup;
• Half a glass of tomatoes in its own juice, 100 g of processed cheese, garlic (used for warm salads);
• In equal proportions, vegetable oil and orange juice with mint and a pinch of pepper.
Simple quick-mixed salads can be used as a light dinner or snack, as an appetizer before dinner, as a side dish to the main course. In this last case, you need to pay attention to the compatibility of the salad ingredients and the main dish.
Recipe 1. A simple salad in a whip "Mosaic"
Ingredients
Boiled rice until cooked - 1 cup
Boiled beef (it is possible, although undesirable, to replace with other boiled meat) - 250 g
Bulgarian sweet pepper - three pieces of different colors
Canned corn - half a can
Mayonnaise
Cooking method
Boil the rice until ready (or take it ready), rinse it under running cold water. Cut the beef into small cubes (it is better to cool it first, then the meat will be better cut) or even chop with a knife.
Cut the pepper into medium-sized cubes as well.
Mix meat, pepper, corn and rice, season with mayonnaise.
If desired, you can add a little salt, black pepper or a clove of garlic.
Recipe 2. A very simple salad whip up "Macaroshechka"
Ingredients
Small macaroni (bows, horns, shells) - 1 pack (400 g)
Parmesan - 200 g
Fetaki or not too salty feta cheese - 200 g
Sweet pepper, better than different colors - 2 pieces
Olives - 1 can
Olive (or other odorless vegetable oil) - 3 tablespoons
Pesto - 3 tablespoons
Oregano, rosemary, freshly ground pepper - to taste
Cooking method
Boil pasta, and the cooking time to choose a little less than recommended (three minutes).
Finely grate Parmesan, grate brynza or knead with a fork.
Wash, dry and bake peppers in an oven at 180 degrees for about 5 minutes. Then peel off and cut the pulp quite finely.
Put the olives on a napkin and cut into halves. If olives with seeds, then the seeds, of course, must be removed.
Beat the pesto with butter, if desired, add chopped herbs, salt and pepper to the dressing; you can pour a little dried mixture of Italian herbs.
Still warm macaroni pour in dressing, allow to cool and put cheese, feta cheese and olives.
Recipe 3. A simple salad in a whip "Spicy-sweet pineapple"
This is one of those simple quick-fix salads that can be used for a festive table.
Ingredients
Boiled chicken (fillet) - 300 g
Canned Pineapple - contents of a medium-sized jar (approx. 400 g)
Cheese is hard enough (for example, "Dutch") - 200 g
Garlic - 2 - 3 cloves
Natural yogurt - a glass of 125 g
Pineapple jar syrup - 50 ml
Cooking method
Remove the pineapples from the jar and put them in a colander so that the liquid is completely glass. Cut fruit into small pieces.
Chicken is also medium-sized; grate the cheese, but better not very finely. Peel and pass the garlic through a press.
Whisk yogurt, syrup and garlic with a whisk. Combine in a salad bowl all the ingredients and fill with dressing. It is better to let this salad stand for at least half an hour in the refrigerator.
Recipe 4. Simple Spicy Carrot Salad
Ingredients
Fresh carrots (preferably sweet) - 2 large root vegetables
Cheese like "Maasdam" or "Edam" - 150 g
Garlic - 2 cloves
Mayonnaise
Cooking method
Grate carrots and cheese on the smallest troyochka, and pass the garlic through a press. Mix, season with mayonnaise and let it brew for 30 minutes.
Recipe 5. Very simple whipped salad "Bean"
Ingredients
Canned red beans - 1 can
Canned white beans - 1 can
Canned corn - 1 can
Pickled cucumbers - 5-6 pieces medium size
Garlic - 1 - 2 cloves
Vegetable aromatic oil
Cooking method
Drain the liquid from the bean cans (not everyone likes its taste), it is better to even throw the beans into a colander and rinse slightly with cold water.
Dice pickled cucumbers into cubes slightly finer than beans. Peel the garlic and chop finely and finely with a knife, literally crumbs. If there is absolutely no time, you can skip through the press, but this is worse, because then garlic will give juice.
Mix beans, corn, cucumbers, garlic in a bowl and season with fragrant vegetable oil (mustard is good for this salad).
Recipe 6. The easiest whip up salad "Sweet Chicken"
Ingredients
Chicken fillet - from one breast
Prunes - "father's handful"
Egg - 2 pieces
Raisins - half a glass
Fresh cucumber - 2 pieces
Corn salad (you can have another one according to your taste) - 100 - 150 g
Walnuts - pieces 7-8
Mayonnaise
Cooking method
Boil eggs and chicken. Cool. Rinse and dry the salad.
Soak raisins and prunes in cool water (naturally, this should be done if the dried fruits are hard or not very clean; otherwise, wash them well enough).
Chicken fillet, cucumbers (it is better to clean them beforehand), cut prunes into strips, if possible thin. Peel and slice the eggs.
Peel and roll the nuts with a rolling pin.
Gently mix chicken, prunes, raisins, nuts, cucumbers and season with mayonnaise generously.
Put lettuce leaves in the salad bowl, place the fillet with cucumber and dried fruits on them, and decorate the egg slices on top.
Recipe 7. A simple salad in a hurry with cod or pollock liver
Ingredients
Boiled rice - 1 cup
Cod or Pollock Liver - 1 can; you can use the liver "in the seaside", that is, in the form of "paste"
Pickled cucumbers - 2 - 3 pieces of mediocre
Onions (it is desirable to take a red salad, but you can also ordinary) - half a medium-sized onion
Eggs - 3 pieces
Parsley
Mayonnaise
Cooking method
Boil and cool eggs and rice. Rinse rice with cold water.
The beam is cleaned and cut into thin half rings, and can be smaller. Chop the eggs. Chop pickled cucumbers and parsley. If the liver is in pieces in a jar, remove it from the oil, let it drain and knead the pieces with a fork.
Mix rice with eggs, liver, cucumbers, onions, season with mayonnaise, put in a salad bowl and sprinkle with parsley.
Recipe 8. Simple Shrimp Salad with Shrimp
This simple salad in a whip is quite possible to serve on the festive table.
Ingredients
Boiled shrimps - a glass of peeled
Boiled eggs - 3 - 4 pieces
Any lettuce leaves - 250 g
Sweet apples - 2 large
Fresh cucumber - 1 small; it is possible without it
Radish is a good handful; also can not put
Lemon juice
Mayonnaise or yogurt sauce (natural thick yogurt with mustard, salt and curry)
Cooking method
Boil eggs, cool and cut into slices.
Boil shrimps for a couple of minutes in boiling water and peel. Wash apples, peel and cut into thin slices. Sprinkle with lemon juice so as not to darken.
If you decide to put a cucumber and radish, wash them and cut into thin circles. Wash the salad and, if necessary, tear into pieces of medium size.
Put lettuce leaves, cucumber and radish in high portioned salad bowls (you can simply drink them in glasses), season with mayonnaise or yogurt sauce, and add shrimps, apples, eggs and a slide of sauce to this “pillow”.
Recipe 9. A very simple lettuce with feta cheese
Ingredients
Brynza or feta cheese - 200 g
A mixture of salad leaves (corn, mangod, frisse, romano, etc.) - 150 g
Large plums - 2 or regular - 4 - 5 pieces
Lemon juice half a lemon
Olive Oil - 60 ml
Cereal Mustard - 1.5 teaspoons
Honey - a tablespoon; if desired
Chopped or pine nuts; in extreme cases, peanuts - a couple of tablespoons
Cooking method
Wash the salad and plums. If necessary, break the salad with your hands. Cut plums into quarters, and large plums into thinner slices, taking out, of course, a bone in both cases.
Gently cut the feta cheese or feta into thick slices, and then into cubes.
Mix lemon juice with olive oil and mustard, whisk with a whisk. If desired, you can add a spoonful of liquid honey.
Put lettuce leaves in a salad bowl, brynza and plums on them, season with pouring and sprinkle with nuts.
Subtleties and useful tips for cooking simple salads in a hurry
Now on sale there are a huge number of products that can reduce the time to prepare the salad to a minimum. For example, mixes of salads in sealed bags, canned ingredients (fish, chicken, beans, beets and steamed carrots, etc.), freshly frozen vegetables, including mixtures. All this will greatly facilitate the work of the hostess, but will increase the cost of the dish. Yes, and get carried away with canned foods to the detriment of fresh ones is still not worth it, especially at a time when there is so much delicious, right from the bed!
Nevertheless, jars of beans, corn, cucumbers, salmon, cod liver and the like, standing in the far corner, can perfectly save you at the sudden visit of hungry guests. A bag of salad, apple and lemon can be easily purchased at any supermarket.
If possible, mayonnaise should be replaced with other sauces that are not so harmful. For example, yogurt-based sauce, sour cream, vegetable oil with lemon juice.
When serving, even the simplest salad in a hurry should be decorated somehow: put in a beautiful slide, sprinkle with herbs or grated cheese, cover with a "net" drawn with thick sauce, etc. You can put it in portioned salad bowls or in leaves of a lettuce salad. For the holiday table, you can cook 5 - 6 small salads and put them in a scissors or several identical small bowls and put in a group.
