If I could be famous for anything it would be a pantry salad. I always have items in my pantry to jazz up a salad, something my mom taught me in my early days post college. When it comes to a good salad, texture is everything, and having a few canned items on hand can really turn your salad around! A few of my favorites that I stock up on a lot:
Chickpeas
Green olives
Hearts of palm
Artichoke Hearts
Corn
Black beans
White beans
Tuna
Sunflower Seeds
Slivered Almonds
…everything you need for texture, crunch, flavor and an extra boost of goodness!
See the full video of this salad here!
I threw this salad together with everything I hand on hand. Another item that is always in our refrigerator that keeps well is jarred pepperoncini peppers. So much flavor with a little zing! This particular salad was sort of inspired by an Italian chopped salad I used to get in Chicago from a local market. I remember always thinking it was packed with the freshest ingredients but now looking back, many of its ingredients were from a can.
The fresh ingredients in this salad are a mix of butter lettuce, spinach, cucumber, celery and goat cheese. The key is to sort of get everything the same size for that perfect bite every time.
The Pantry Salad
Ingredients:
Butter lettuce
Spinach
Cucumber
Celery
Chickpeas
Green olives
Goat cheese
Sunflower seeds
Dressing:
Olive oil
Lemon
Salt + pepper
A few tips, I like to use a pizza cutter to cut up my lettuce. It makes it so easy to just do it right in the bowl. Also, if you don’t salt and pepper your salads, you are missing out on so much flavor! I like a really light layer of dressing on my salads so I just pour everything right on top and mix together.