The Key to a Better Salad? Acid and Thoughtful Knifework

There’s a lot to love about salad—a tumble of proteins, starches and vegetables freely tossed together, with an endless array of flavorful dressings and ingredients to choose from. But too often we see the same ingredients on repeat, weighed down with a gloppy dressing. That is precisely why we dedicated some time to new salads in this episode of Milk Street TV. These salads boast bright flavors and complementary dressings, and are prepared with a keen eye for texture.

In addition to thoughtful preparation, we found the key to keeping salad exciting was acid. Our Vietnamese Chicken Salad with Sweet Lime-Garlic Dressing (Goi Gà), features bold East Asian flavors. The dressing is a perfect balance of umami and tartness, and has such a simple ratio, you can call upon it at any time. We also figured out how to flavor beans from within in our Greek Bean Salad (Fasolia Piaz). And we refresh the traditional Caesar Salad with a couple Spanish inspired twists in our Romaine with Manchego and Smoky Pepper Dressing Salad.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad with Sweet Lime-Garlic Dressing (Goi Gà)

This bright and crunchy chicken salad sports East Asian flavors with a dressing that is simple to make but complex in flavor. A mixture of two parts lime juice to one part fish sauce brings bold, fruity citrus notes that mingle with funky, salty umami. Simply whisk in a bit of sugar and grated garlic for added flavor and balance.

Toss the thinly sliced onion into the dressing. The salt and acid will soften the onion slightly and mellow out some of the raw bite, similar to quick pickling in vinegar. Set this aside until you’re ready to dress the salad.

Part of what makes this salad a successful main dish is that we don’t shy away from the chicken. The protein takes a front seat here—we use a whopping 3 cups of shredded chicken. That’s about the amount you'd get from a store-bought rotisserie chicken, if you want to take out some of the leg work. Once all of your shredded vegetables and torn herbs are tossed into a large salad bowl, pour the dressing and onions into the bowl and give it another thorough toss before garnishing and serving.

Maximize your acid options

Sour components are absolutely essential to a well-balanced dish and a salad is no exception. While it’s easy to gravitate toward acids like lemon juice or vinegar, there is a wider range of tart and tasty ingredients to consider.

We separate them into four categories: everyday vinegars, aged and concentrated, specialty vinegars and not-vinegars. Everyday vinegars are items you might already keep in your pantry, like rice vinegar, red wine vinegar, white vinegar and apple cider vinegar. They’re tart on the front-end and versatile enough to use in everything from salad dressings to soups and rice dishes. Aged and concentrated acids are more syrupy and less sharp, like balsamic, pomegranate molasses and black vinegar. These can be used with a lighter hand as a drizzle or glaze. Specialty vinegars, like pineapple vinegar, white balsamic or calamansi vinegar are used occasionally to lend a signature pop to a dish. They tend to err on the sweet and light side, unlike concentrated acids which can be sweet, caramelized and earthy.

The fourth category of sour ingredients are our not-vinegars, like citrus juices, yogurt, sour cream, tamarind paste, ver jus (juice from an unripe sour fruit, usually grapes) or dried sour spices. Any given not-vinegar ingredient might not be versatile in the same way everyday vinegars are, but that’s why this category is an exciting one to explore. Yogurt and sour cream can add sourness and bulk for a dip or spread, tamarind paste can build a sauce or dressing, and if you need a sour note but you’d prefer not to introduce moisture to the dish, you can use something like dried sumac or omani lime powder.

Greek Bean Salad (Fasolia Piaz)

Our Greek Bean Salad might be simple but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking flavor. We don’t just dress the beans on the outside, we make sure to add flavor on the inside too.

Our trick here can be used on any bean salad. To flavor the beans, you need to heat them up. Start by draining and rinsing your canned beans and putting them in a microwave-safe bowl. Toss the beans with a pinch of salt and put them in the microwave to warm up for a few minutes. The amount of time will vary depending on how many beans you’re using, but it took us about three minutes. Stir the beans halfway through the heating time. Meanwhile, prepare the dressing and set it aside.

The beans will be steaming when they come out of the microwave, which is exactly what you want. Some of the moisture inside of each bean is evaporating. As the beans cool, they will have available space to rehydrate. We take advantage of this and give them something far more tasty than water to drink: a flavorful dressing. The beans will absorb some of the allium-spiked oil and vinegar dressing as they cool.

Once the beans are thoroughly warmed through, immediately pour the dressing over them and toss it all together. Finish with creamy hunks of avocado, fresh herbs and a hit of lemon.

Bring out the best flavor with a chop

What goes into your salad is important, but how you prepare those ingredients is just as crucial to the salad’s success. Big, chunky chops aren’t always the right move. As we craft our salads, we consider a couple things before we slice, like the flavor profile and texture of the ingredient.

Radicchio, for example, provides a sturdy texture, but it’s a rather bitter leaf. Eating a large chunk of this might be tough to chew and overwhelm your palate with its flavor. Ingredients with strong flavors (whether bitter, sweet or salty) should be sliced thinly, or even shaved if it’s extremely potent. Tough or fibrous ingredients will benefit from smaller slices as well. If there’s a grain to the fibers, like with a fennel bulb, cut across the grain (the same way you would with a steak) to make the pieces easier to chew.

As for tender ingredients or mildly flavored ones, like gem lettuce, romaine, tomatoes, stone fruits or soft cheeses, you can get away with simply cutting or tearing them into big pieces.

Romaine with Manchego and Smoky Pepper Dressing

This salad is inspired by the classic Caesar salad, but with a refreshing Spanish twist. We build a robust Catalonian-style romesco sauce with red peppers and smoked almonds. Further body is added to it with an unusual thickening agent: pan-fried croutons. The resulting thickness of the dressing makes this sauce versatile. Keep the sauce thick for swiping over steak or roast chicken, thin it slightly to create a dressing that coats romaine lettuce leaves (like we did), or add more water to thin it even further for draping over tender asparagus.

Once again, acid plays a big role. We balance the rich, smoky dressing with some sherry vinegar. All of these ingredients may seem like a lot of pressure for a salad dressing, but just like in a traditional Caesar salad, the dressing here truly carries the entire dish. Thoroughly toss the chopped romaine and torn mint to ensure each leaf is graced with flavor. Finish the salad off with the remaining smoky almonds and a shower of grated manchego cheese.

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Allie Chanthorn Reinmann

Allie Chantorn Reinmann is a Digital Staff Writer for Christopher Kimball’s Milk Street. She’s a Thai-American chef who earned her diploma for Pastry and Baking Arts at The Institute of Culinary Education and worked professionally for over a decade honing her craft in New York City at places like Balthazar, Bien Cuit, The Chocolate Room, Billy’s Bakery and Whole Foods. Allie took her know-how from the kitchen to the internet, writing about food full-time at Lifehacker for three years and starting her own YouTube channel, ThaiNYbites. You can find her whipping up baked goods for cafés around Brooklyn, building wedding cakes and trying her hand (feet?) at marathon running. She’s working on her debut cookbook and lives in Brooklyn, NY.