Rhiannon Ally: The warmer weather often gives us that spark we need to help eat healthier - probably all the thoughts of the pool or the beach. Well, American Classic’s Chef Scott Peacock shows us how to make that perfect salad with a homemade dressing in today’s Better Bites.
Nancy Hopkins: A great chopped salad is a fresh and healthful summertime meal and nearly everything you need is available at your local farmer’s market. What would you put into a chopped salad, Scott?
Scott Peacock: As in delicious dressing.
Nancy Hopkins: How do we make one?
Scott Peacock: We’re making creamy garlic dressing today and we’re just taking some fresh garlic and we just chop this coarsely at first and then we’re going to sprinkle over a little bit of kosher salt.
Nancy Hopkins: Now what does that do?
Scott Peacock: Well, it acts as a pumice because we’re going to rub it among them but it also absorbs all the oils to come out of the garlic so they go into the salt and then into our dressing not just soaked up into the cutting board.
We can start rubbing it down so little.
So here in the bowl we have the garlic paste and lemon juice has been simmering for about 10 minutes. It gives it a good long time to work and then we have some crème de fraise or sour cream and just put this in and whisk it together and taste.
Nancy Hopkins: Now I can smell the garlic.
Scott Peacock: Yup. So we’re using romaine lettuce today and we’ve washed this in cool water and drained it and now we’ve got salad that has been like you can find within the hardware store kitchen shop. Put small amounts in here. You don’t want to weigh this down too much. You want to spin not too aggressively.
Nancy Hopkins: Small batches of it.
Scott Peacock: Small batches. Take your time. It’s worth at the end. The water comes up. It’s pretty dry already. Great! And we’ll just put this out in a single layer. Let’s just cover this with another towel. Again, paper towels will work just fine, something absorbent.
Nancy Hopkins: A lot of paper towels though.
Scott Peacock: Something absorbent, you can just keep this and use this again and again and then just wrap it and roll it up like this and then double it over like this and we’ll put this in a plastic or Ziploc bag and put it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to make salad.
Nancy Hopkins: Scott, you’ve got gardens worth of fabulous crunchy stuff here. What goes first?
Scott Peacock: We’re going to build a salad. We’ve got all of our shredded boned dry lettuce here and we’re going to season that with a bit of molten salt.
Nancy Hopkins: And why molten?
Scott Peacock: It’s delicious with a bit of sea salt. You could also use kosher salt and some pepper.
Nancy Hopkins: Lots of it.
Scott Peacock: I think it’s healthful if you toss a salad just for the seasoning at this point and you could that for me.
Nancy Hopkins: Okay.
Scott Peacock: Alright, and then we’ll add in some corn and some tomatoes, and some cucumber.
Nancy Hopkins: It’s a chopped salad.
Scott Peacock: Yeah, and some green beans because we need more stuff and then I’m going to put a little bit of the dressing while you’re tossing.
Nancy Hopkins: I love this. Look how gorgeous.
Scott Peacock: And I’m also going to put a little bit more chive.
Nancy Hopkins: The secret you say.
Scott Peacock: Yeah, the chives are so delicious and we’ll go ahead and put it in a little bit of this crisp crumbled bacon.
Nancy Hopkins: Because they can make everything better.
Scott Peacock: And at the last minute, we’ll put in some avocado because if we put in too soon, it gets all mashed up.
Nancy Hopkins: We don’t want to mash those.
Scott Hopkins: Exactly.
Nancy Hopkins: It’s gentle, right?
Scott Peacock: Exactly and just the last scoop.
Nancy Hopkins: I’m Nancy Hopkins for Better.
Rhiannon Ally: If you like more summertime favorite recipes make sure to check out this month’s Better Homes in Garden’s Magazine on sale now.
Transcription by:
Scribe4you Transcription Services