Prepare vinaigrette: Place oil, vinegar, garlic powder, Dijon, maple syrup, salt and pepper into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk to combine. Taste then add more salt and pepper if you wish.
Prepare the salad: Tear heads of lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Rinse and spin to remove excess water. Transfer to a large salad bowl. Add fennel, carrot, leek and mushrooms. Sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs.
Dress salad: Drizzle about ¼-cup of vinaigrette onto salad and gently toss.
Serve immediately with sea salt flakes and more black pepper on the side.
Mixed Salad Recipe
Ingredients
For the salad:
3 small heads of lettuce - Boston, red leaf, curly
Prepare vinaigrette: Place oil, vinegar, garlic powder, Dijon, maple syrup, salt and pepper into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk to combine. Taste then add more salt and pepper if you wish.
Prepare the salad: Tear heads of lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Rinse and spin to remove excess water. Transfer to a large salad bowl. Add fennel, carrot, leek and mushrooms. Sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs.
Dress salad: Drizzle about ¼-cup of vinaigrette onto salad and gently toss.
Serve immediately with sea salt flakes and more black pepper on the side.
Mixed Salad Recipe
5 / 5. 1
An assortment of fresh lettuces, shaved fennel, thinly sliced leek, mushrooms and carrots tossed with a simple vinaigrette…
Healthy salads are always a good idea, so try this MIXED SALAD RECIPE!
Oftentimes this simple salad idea is offered in upscale restaurants where you’ll see it listed on the menu as a green salad, house salad or tossed garden salad. You may also see it listed as an INSALATA MISTA, which is Italian for “mixed salad”.
Whether you’re serving it as an appetizer or starter, or pairing it with a fish, poultry, beef, pork or vegetarian main, this simple salad recipe has it all. It’s super tasty, easy to prepare and includes a recipe for a tangy vinaigrette dressing. We know you’re going to love it.
Something else you might love – even more salad ideas. Bookmark our 32 BEST SALAD RECIPES. Within you’ll find our famous Cobb salad, potato salads, slaws and many others that are sure to please.
For now, here’s the deal on this MIXED SALAD RECIPE:
INGREDIENTS
Frequent visitors to WATC know how much we appreciate recipes that call for readily available ingredients. For this freshly made simple green salad recipe, we’re tasking you with tracking down various fresh lettuces, a few veggies, some fresh herbs and fixings for a very simple vinaigrette. What’s the takeaway on this one? Let’s hear it for “simple and easy”!
ASSORTED VEGETABLES
Something else we often suggest is to use organically grown and locally sourced ingredients whenever possible. This salad give you great reason to pick up organic greens, carrots, fennel, leeks and mushrooms. As for fresh herbs, try this recipe with cilantro, chives, dill, parsley and basil. If you happen to have some of these delicious, healthy veggies and herbs in your garden, now’s the perfect time to use them.
LETTUCES
In the VIDEO attached to this post, we offer suggestions on the varieties of lettuce that you can use to make this recipe. We crafted this post using curly lettuce, Boston and a red leaf lettuce, but escarole, watercress, baby spinach, kale and even romaine lettuce will work too.
SALAD SPINNER
An important tip we hope you remember whenever you’re crafting a tossed salad with fresh greens and lettuce: give all the greens a good rinse in cold water followed by a spin or strain using a colander or salad spinner. Doing so will help remove sand and dirt from the leaves, along with any little insects hiding out in there.
VINAIGRETTE
The vinaigrette we crafted for this MIXED SALAD doesn’t quite follow the standard 3:1 ratio for oil and vinegar, instead going with a lighter 2:1 ratio. We then added three flavour enhancements that give this homemade salad dressing tons of flavour – Dijon mustard, garlic powder and a titch of maple syrup (instead of honey). Who knew these three could do so much in taking this salad from simple to amazing? We did, that’s why we added them!
That said, there’s still room to adjust to your taste. Don’t like extra-virgin olive oil? Try the recipe with sunflower, vegetable, canola or something more flavour-forward oil like walnut or avocado. Same goes for the vinegar. If red wine vinegar isn’t to your liking, make the vinaigrette using apple cider vinegar, rice wine vinegar, balsamic or a favourite fruit vinegar. Pro tip: give the dressing a quick whisk to emulsify it right before drizzling it onto the greens.
TOSSED SALAD
We love the direction on this salad recipe: drizzle about four tablespoons of vinaigrette onto the salad and gently toss. During the testing of this recipe, we found a gentle toss is the only way to go. It ensures that all of the greens are properly dressed with the vinaigrette, and it keeps the salad light and airy. Hoping that gives you a visual sense of what we’re suggesting. We find nothing worse than a wilted greens doused with too much dressing.
SERVE
As mentioned, feel free to serve this salad as a starter or side dish with your favourite main. It’s now become our go-to serve-with-everything salad option. However, there’s one caveat: the salad won’t keep after being dressed and served. It’s best to dress, toss, serve and enjoy, no leftovers allowed. We’re big fans of that idea, plus it’s yet another reason to eat those vegetables!
Finally, we encourage you to make this sensational salad recipe your own. Even though we kept things simple and tasty, feel free to add additional flavour enhancements. This salad loves nuts and seeds like almonds, walnuts, pine nuts and sunflower seeds. It also loves cheese like shaved parmesan, feta, goat cheese and blue cheese. If you’re gunning for more veggies, try including cherry tomatoes, cucumbers, shaved red onion, peas, asparagus and peppers too.
Enjoy this fresh and healthy MIXED SALAD right away!
Prepare vinaigrette: Place oil, vinegar, garlic powder, Dijon, maple syrup, salt and pepper into a medium-sized bowl. Whisk to combine. Taste then add more salt and pepper if you wish.
Prepare the salad: Tear heads of lettuce into bite-sized pieces. Rinse and spin to remove excess water. Transfer to a large salad bowl. Add fennel, carrot, leek and mushrooms. Sprinkle with chopped fresh herbs.
Dress salad: Drizzle about ¼-cup of vinaigrette onto salad and gently toss.
Serve immediately with sea salt flakes and more black pepper on the side.
