David Chang's Super Easy Tip To Add Flavorful Crunch To Your Salad

Salads neither need to be tasteless nor laborious to serve, and Chef David Chang has just the solution to help you place delicious plates onto the table with minimal hassle. On Instagram, Chang dumps a mix of dried snacks into a bowl of lettuce and diced tomatoes. In the caption, Chang explains the crunchy ingredient is an Asian snack mix. The concoction of seasoned peanuts, sesame sticks, rice crackers, and wasabi peas are not simply delicious to eat on their own, but when poured into a salad mixing bowl as Chang demonstrates, an everyday salad is brought to new heights.

Don't have Asian snack mix stocked away in your cupboards? Let Chang's quick culinary ingenuity inspire you to feel equally empowered to dump whatever snack mix and dried ingredients you have on hand into your salads. From a sweet and savory Crispix arare recipe to the trail mix you made yourself that is packed with pistachios, Madras curry powder, and walnuts, the easy inclusion can help ensure your salads are never boring, expected, or traditional ever again. 

Whether you have packaged trail mixes at home or have created your own assembly of dried snacks and nuts for snacking, get used to viewing the ingredients in a new light: Reach for a spoon or top off your next salad bowl with a handful or two of the crunchy mix. Use Chang's suggested Asian mix topping or invite your own snack of choice into your salad to bring textural contrast to the other elements you have placed into your salad bowls. Eating healthy can also be convenient.

When combining ingredients, consider the overall flavors you're looking to amplify. Peppery, salty snack mixes can offset sweeter ingredients like tomatoes and corn, while buttery nuts and dried fruit can complement the spicier tastes of sliced peppers and arugula leaves. After trying this quick hack for your next meal, you might want to add more trail mix to your shopping list.