Creating and Serving Salads During Your Summer Dinner Party
We like to entertain guests during the summer months and I like to serve salads as our meals. I never know exactly what kind of salad accompaniments to prepare so I like to offer a little bit of everything. When you are preparing salads to serve at a dinner party, you always want to start out with the freshest ingredients possible, so don’t purchase them more than 1-2 days in advance.
Here are a few ideas of what you can serve so that your guests can create their own perfect salad.
Vegetables: broccoli, cabbage, cauliflower, celery, cucumbers, garbanzo beans, green peppers, jalapeno peppers, loose-leaf and head lettuce, mushrooms, onions, radishes, red beets, red peppers, snow peas, spinach, tomatoes, zucchini
Meats and Fish: grilled chicken and fish, ham, turkey, pepperoni, salami, seafood
Miscellaneous: cottage cheese, hard-boiled eggs, alfalfa sprouts, green and black olives
Cheeses: American, blue cheese, cheddar, Swiss, Colby Jack, provolone
Toppings: bacon, croutons, crushed Chinese noodles, raisins, sunflower seeds, sesame seeds, tofu
Dressings: French, Italian, Blue Cheese, Thousand Island, Ranch, Honey Mustard, Flavored Vinaigrettes
When it comes to serving your salad items, here are a few tips.
1. Serve the cold items in chilled bowls or serving plates.
2. Pat dry all vegetables with a clean dry cloth after rinsing/cleaning them.
3. Shred and chop all items into bite size pieces ahead of time and store in the refrigerator in proper airtight containers.
4. If combining your salad ingredients ahead of time (instead of using individual serving … Read More ...