Salad Recipes & Salad Dressings

This Italian summer salad is vibrant and delicious. Ripe tomatoes, crunchy bread and fragrant basil are tossed together with a simple, refreshing vinaigrette.

Layers of endive topped with fresh dates, crumbled blue cheese, toasted walnuts and drizzled with a delicious Dijon vinaigrette.

This fresh and healthy Greek salad is full of color and flavor.

Tuna and freshly-cooked cannellini beans make up this healthy and tasty salad.

A delicious, seasonal appetizer. Warm figs with melted cambozola cheese are drizzled with a balsamic vinegar reduction.

Mung beans, mint, green onions, red wine and olive oil are tossed together to create this healthy, refreshing and darn tasty salad!

This is a fantastic fresh salad with avocado, endive, romaine lettuce, peas and a beautiful mint and Dijon mustard vinaigrette.

Warm green beans tossed with creamy Cambozola cheese and toasted pine nuts. This extremely easy-to-make dish can be served as a side or even as a delicious warm salad.

Inspired by the South of France, the combination of flavors in this Niçoise salad are amazing.

Delicious grilled vegetables are tossed in a delicious vinaigrette made of capers, olives, red wine vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil.

Similar to tapenade, this chunky mixture of capers, olives, red wine vinegar and extra-virgin olive oil pairs perfectly with grilled meats and vegetables.

Fresh and healthy greens are tossed in a tangy citrus vinaigrette.

Thinly sliced cucumbers are tossed with rice wine vinegar, mirin and chili flakes. This Asian-inspired dish is delicious as a light salad or garnish.

A deliciously easy salad made with summer tomatoes, soft mozzarella cheese and fresh pesto.

This is quick, everyday dressing is fresh, citrusy and so very easy to make.

These fantastic peppers are cooked on the barbecue until they are lightly charred. Peeled and then tossed with garlic and vinegar, these delicious peppers can be served as a side dish or as an appetizer alongside some hummus.

Serrano ham, heart of palm, fresh mozzarella and Manzanilla olives dress up tender butter lettuce.

A refreshing and healthy citrus vinaigrette.

Sweet, perfectly ripe melon paired with salty, paper-thin prosciutto!

This delicious couscous is flavored with raisins, pistachios, fresh mint and parsley.

The mixture of these bold flavors, lemon, marmalade, coriander and garlic make it an incredible vinaigrette, dipping sauce or marinade.

Spinach, walnuts and goat cheese served with a warm maple Dijon and walnut vinaigrette.

Golden, round Parmesan crisps make for a special, salty garnish.

Dijon mustard and extra-virgin olive oil are dolloped into the center of a fresh and perfectly ripe avocado...yum!

Meyer lemon is a citrus fruit, native to China, thought to be a cross between a true lemon and a mandarin orange. They add a subtle acidity to any dessert or savory dish.

Lardon is a French culinary term referring to thin strips of bacon cut approximately 1/4" -inch thick.

Couscous is often mistaken as a grain but it's actually a type of pasta made from semolina flour.

Fresh and crisp salad greens are a healthy and refreshing part of a balanced diet. These days, the markets are filled with an array of vibrant greens. One can literally make a unique salad every day of the week that will vary in color, composition and flavor. By using a variety of greens, salads will not only look visually stunning, but they will taste great.

In this lesson, you will learn how to choose and identify an assortment of salad greens. You will learn how to clean and refresh greens and how to dry and store them. You will also learn how to properly dress and toss a salad and how to combine greens in order to compose different salads.

Gone are the days of boring salads. By having a supply of clean, seasonal greens in the refrigerator, you will be inspired to put together a fresh, crisp and healthy salad on a regular basis. Whether served as a whole meal or a simple side, salads are easy to work into your cooking repertoire.

All chefs and seasoned cooks make their own vinaigrettes and dressings. They are extremely easy to make and most importantly, the cook is in complete control of what goes into them. Most manufactured vinaigrettes and dressings contain a long list of unnatural ingredients and preservatives. When you learn the simple technique of making your own, you have the freedom to personalize the flavor by using fresh, quality ingredients.

In this lesson you will learn the difference between unstable and stable emulsions and the difference between vinaigrettes and dressings. We will teach you how to build a basic vinaigrette, using a variety of oils and acids. Once you learn how to make a basic vinaigrette, you will learn simple ways to flavor this kitchen staple. Finally, you will learn how to match vinaigrettes to various types of greens.

Vinaigrettes are multi-functional and should not be reserved just for salads. Whether you are marinating foods, dressing fish or shellfish, or if you want to add a punch of flavor to steamed vegetables or grains, vinaigrettes are an extremely easy way to expand your culinary repertoire.

The old saying ‘you are what you eat’ is not quite accurate. If you want to be in control of what you eat, then, more accurately, ‘you are what you cook’ and if you are not cutting, this means you are not cooking. It’s that simple.

All too often people choose not to cook because the slicing and dicing of ingredients is too much of a challenge and; therefore, considered a chore. People who know how to handle a knife effectively and with confidence naturally cook more and, in turn, people who cook more generally lead healthier lifestyles. For this reason, knowing how to handle a knife is perhaps one of the most important life-skills.

In this lesson, you will learn how to cut using a chef’s knife. You will learn how to grip a chef’s knife, how to position your guide hand and the mechanics of the rolling technique. Most new cooks feel intimidated by a sharp blade, so we will demonstrate a safe and effective way for you to practice this skill before you even pick up your knife. Once you are comfortable, we will show you how to practice cutting with your chef’s knife. We will also show you various ways to position your knife and hands based on the ingredient you are cutting. And finally, we will show you how to hone your knife in order to keep it nice and sharp.

We cannot over-emphasize the importance of this lesson which will, in a very short time, put you on the most effective path to good cooking. It is an exhilarating feeling once you learn how to properly handle a chef’s knife and once you do, you will be able to easily and confidently move on to more challenging techniques to create a variety of delicious dishes.

Properly-cooked vegetables are hard to come by. They are either too crunchy or terribly over-cooked. When cooking vegetables, the main objectives are to preserve flavor and color, while achieving the desired texture.

In this lesson, you will learn the basics of vegetable cookery. By understanding the differences between boiling, simmering, blanching and parboiling, you won’t ever have those childhood fears of eating poorly-cooked vegetables again.

Vegetables grow in an array of colors - from beautiful white to vibrant green, bright orange and deep red. This is due to the presence of certain pigments in their cells.

In this lesson, you will learn about the different pigment categories and the things you need to keep in mind during cooking to preserve the optimal color and flavor.

Removing the skin from fruit such as a tomato, peach or even plums is easy with a quick blanch and an ice bath.

Here's an easy way to pit and dice the avocado fruit to make delicious guacamole, salsa or just to add to a salad.

Use this easy knife skill to obtain beautiful citrus segments for a tart or salad.

The stem on large leaf spinach can be tough and stringy. Here we show you how to remove the stems before adding to things such as a salad or your favorite spinach dip.

By mincing or crushing garlic into a paste, it releases more flavor and becomes quite powerful. This is a great knife skill to use in the kitchen when you want a strong garlic flavor.

The olive is the fruit from the olive tree. Until olives are brined, they are inedible. Whole olives are superior in flavor to olives that already have the pit removed. Here we show you how to pit olives yourself, so you can add the best flavor to any recipe.

How to cut, dice, slice or mince anything with a chef's knife is one of the most important cooking skills you can learn. This video teaches how to cut any type of onion.

Cauliflower is a member of the same family as cabbage and broccoli and is grown in quite a few colors. Here we show you how to buy and prepare cauliflower. It can be enjoyed raw or cooked in a variety of ways.

Chiffonade, a cutting technique taught in culinary school, is used to create long, thin strips of an ingredient.

This video will show you how to buy and prepare one of the most delicious tropical fruits.

A mandoline is a kitchen utensil used for slicing and cutting precise cuts, unlike a grater. One of the advantages of using a mandoline is that the slices will be uniform in thickness.

Emince is a culinary term referring to a type of knife cut that means to thinly slice.