Spring Salad

These tips from Geoff Jansz will help you to make the perfect salad!

Geoff's tips
Salad leaves: be gentle with them. Wash well, shake and gently towel dry, then tear into bite-sized pieces

Salad bowl: use a large bowl to toss the salad, so you distribute the flavours over every leaf.

Oil: oils with the best flavour are too strong, so Geoff recommends thinning them down with a neutral oil such as sunflower or even grape seed oil.

Vinegar and lemon juice: the acid in vinegar and lemon juice competes with the flavour of the salad leaves, so only use a splash. It's also worth trying balsamic vinegar, red wine or sherry vinegar.

Salt: Geoff likes to use a little grey or sea salt, but salads which include ingredients such as olives or anchovies will not require as much salt.

Other flavourings: capers, mustard and olives are standard additions to salads. However, Geoff recommends tasting all the salad leaves before adding other flavourings, which might compete.

Crunch: instead of the usual croutons, consider using nuts. Geoff's favourites are pine nuts and walnuts

Fresh herbs: Geoff often uses dill, parsley and chives in salads, but warns that herbs like thyme, rosemary and sage are too strong.

Preparation: always prepare your salad just before serving.

Further information

Grey salt (also called gris tradition) is a large grained salt collected from French marshes, and sold in its natural state. It is grey in colour and slightly wet to touch. Expect to pay about $7.80 for 125g at Simon Johnson or other gourmet food outlets.

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