How to Make a Great Green Salad

Familiar head lettuces such as Bibb, romaine, and red or green leaf are salad stalwarts. We use them to provide most of the bulk in the bowl, and their relatively mild flavors make them extremely versatile. Think of them as a functional base layer that you can accessorize with more assertive accent greens, herbs, and other vegetables.

A generous handful of any of these spicy, bitter, crunchy, or frilly greens will make your salad pop.

Store both washed, dried leaves and intact heads of lettuce wrapped in moist paper towels in a partially open plastic produce bag or zipper-lock bag. Never store lettuce in the refrigerator without any protection, as it will rapidly go limp.

Lettuce wilts because it loses water, so the key to reviving it is to put the water back in. A 30-minute soak in ice water will usually restore crispness.

Using high-quality oil and vinegar (or lemon juice) beats a bottled dressing any day. But the way you add these components to your salad affects how quickly it wilts. Here are two methods to ensure that your greens stay crisp.

Quick Route: Lazy Person’s Vinaigrette

Drizzling oil and vinegar over your greens is fast and perfectly fine—as long as you add them in the right order. We found that tossing the salad first with the vinegar and again after adding the oil prevented the leaves from wilting too quickly. Why? Lettuce leaves have a protective waxy cuticle layer that helps keep out water-based liquids (such as vinegar), but oil easily penetrates this film. Vinegar helps block the oil so it doesn’t penetrate the cuticle and wilt your lettuce.

Best Route: Emulsified Vinaigrette

An emulsified vinaigrette works best for keeping the salad crisp because the vinegar surrounds droplets of oil, trapping them and preventing contact with the greens. (Not to mention that an emulsified vinaigrette will guarantee balanced flavor in every bite.) The mustard and mayonnaise in our Foolproof Vinaigrette contain emulsifying agents that help the oil and vinegar combine into a unified sauce and stay that way for more than an hour.

Nobody likes carrot chunks or wads of goat cheese that sink to the bottom of the bowl. Follow these guidelines to prepare your add-ins so that they distribute evenly in the salad.

1. Leave Some Add-Ins for the Top

Reserve half of heavier nuts and cheeses to sprinkle over the dressed salad.

2. Season the Salad, Too 

The measured amount of salt in a dressing may not be enough, so we like to season the salad to taste with kosher or flake sea salt just after dressing it. This also creates appealing pops of salty crunch.

3. Dress and Season the Salad Right

Add the dressing in increments. Toss the salad, tasting as you go, to ensure that the greens aren’t over- or underdressed.

4. Handle Supplementary Ingredients Correctly

• Vegetables: Shave or thinly slice them (a peeler or mandoline is helpful here) so they mix evenly with the greens.
• Fruits: Thinly slice and drain wet varieties (such as citrus) so that they don’t dilute the dressing.
• Cheese: Crumble soft varieties into ¼- to ½-inch pieces; shave small slivers of hard cheeses.

Each of these salads serves four and is quick to prepare, especially if you’ve washed the greens in advance. Use them as inspiration for your own combinations. Tear or cut all lettuces into 1½- to 2-inch pieces.