Salad Temperature - what should it be?

Gardener123 · Sun Jun 14, 2015 12:58 pm

Since, I bet this group eats LOTS of salads, I wanted to share this story.

I went to this somewhat upscale restaurant last night and ordered a Caesar salad. It was warm, when it arrived at my table. I sent it back, and told the waiter I like my salad to be chilled. It took 10 minutes to get a new salad... so I asked the waiter... "Did you just put my salad in the fridge for 10 minutes?"

He looked embarrassed, and admitted that is exactly what happened... and then he said the owner / chef thinks salads taste best at room temperature.

I told him to take it away and not charge me because I don't like warm salad. And even when the salad came back from the fridge, it wasn't really chilled - just slightly less warm.

How do you like your salad?

skiingjeff · Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:22 pm

Definitely chilled! I like it to have some crunch to it. Warm, wilted greens is not my idea of a great salad.

Nice crunchy greens is great and it would be even better if it also had some other veggies in it besides lettuce. A few cucumber slices, some carrot, green pepper would be great.

If it was fantastic it would also have some small broccoli and cauliflower florets but that hardly ever happens....lol

applestar · Sun Jun 14, 2015 1:29 pm

I would have preferred if they had dunked the salad in ice water bath to crisp them, then spinned dry and re-plated....

GardeningCook · Sun Jun 14, 2015 10:45 pm

It really does depend on the salad. Many types of green salad (spinach, frisee, etc.) are wonderful at room temp. In fact, the only green salad that I would insist on being icy cold would be an iceberg wedge. For all the others, so long as the greens are crisp & the salad is properly dressed (as in greens aren't wilted by the dressing), I really don't care if they're iced or not.

catgrass · Mon Jun 15, 2015 10:48 am

I want mine chilled-unless its a wilted salad. There is a restaurant here in town that serves their salads on chilled plates-Wonderful!

Gardener123 · Tue Jun 16, 2015 9:34 pm

catgrass wrote:I want mine chilled-unless its a wilted salad. There is a restaurant here in town that serves their salads on chilled plates-Wonderful!

I love salads on a chilled plate! I can only imagine I would hate a wilted salad.... never had one.

catgrass · Wed Jun 17, 2015 10:50 am

A wilted salad was served by an Italian restaurant here in town-It had a warm olive oil/vinegar type dressing poured over it-I believe the greens were spinach. Shaved parmesean cheese on top. Very good actually.

GardeningCook · Wed Jun 17, 2015 6:11 pm

Yes - if a salad is "supposed" to be wilted, then it can be extremely good. Spinach salad with a hot bacon dressing is wonderful. As is a frisee salad with a poached egg atop it with a similar dressing. The trick to a good "wilted salad" is to use sturdy greens like frisee or savoy-leaf spinach (baby spinach doesn't take well to hot dressings).