The Simple Rule For Choosing The Best Greens For Your Salad

A well-made salad should feature a harmonious blend of flavors. The mix-ins and dressings are the cherries on top, but the bed of greens should be an equally delicious component. A tasty foundation is key to a good salad, so we spoke to an expert about how to pick the right greens for yours.

Admittedly, we often focus more on the bold ingredients that sit on top of the salad. Rarely does one crave watercress or spinach, but a hankering for dried cranberries, sweet poppy seed dressing, or savory bacon bits is a little more common. For the best salads, Megan McCarthy, the Edible Garden Chef at Atlanta Botanical Garden, believes the two components should work in tandem. As the founder of Healthy Eating 101 and a Have a Plant Ambassador for The Foundation for Fresh Produce, understanding how to choose the tastiest salad greens comes with her role of promoting fruit and vegetable consumption.

"Mix or match the greens' flavor intensity with the salad's other ingredients," McCarthy suggests. Salads often get an unfair critique of being bland, but they just require detailed pairing. Overall, McCarthy believes that balance is the most integral part. "An example would be mild greens pairing well with bold toppings, while strong greens (like arugula) will pop with simple additions," she says. Our grilled strawberry balsamic chicken and spinach salad showcases this perfectly, with the savory-sweet chicken, pungent red onions, and tangy balsamic-strawberry blend bringing life to the mild spinach.

If you're new to making salads, then you know it takes trial and error to successfully match up greens with toppings to make a delicious combo. Common types of greens that are perfect for salads are routinely matched up with the same ingredients, providing a great jumping off point for building your recipe.

Like chef McCarthy mentioned, arugula is often paired with subtle flavors. It has a peppery, woodsiness to it that makes it fit for fresh, milder ingredients. A spring harvest farro salad depicts this; the bold arugula stands out amidst creamy feta, nutty farro and walnuts, and buttery asparagus. It bolsters the other ingredients while still making its bright presence known. Chard, on the other hand, is mild with a pleasant bitterness. The dark green works best with cozy winter salads filled with rich, tangy flavors. Sweet beets, creamy Brie, tangy cranberries, and caramelized onions do well to embrace the soft bitterness of chard.

For the most dynamic flavor, you should always use a variety of greens in your salad. Pair greens that have bold and subtle tastes together, and cater to both aspects when preparing the toppings. Mixed baby greens — an earthy, buttery, bitter blend — sing when matched with a variety of toppings. A grilled za'atar steak and sweet potato bowl pairs the greens with an herbaceous, citrusy spice blend, juicy tomatoes, and sharp radishes.