Season well, let your salad rest, and drain. Salt and other dissolved solids can pull moisture out of greens and vegetables, leading to salads with a watery build-up at the bottom. This can dilute flavor and throw off your dressing and seasoning. That’s why I always make sure to season a make-ahead salad extra-well, knowing that some of the extra salt will get diluted into the extracted liquid, which I then partially drain off. If I have time the day I make the salad, I’ll do it then (the liquid takes about an hour to get pulled out). If not, I’ll drain the salad just before I eat it the next day.
With these basics in mind, there are any number of directions you can go. Here are a couple of my favorite salad recipes: three you’ve maybe seen here before and a brand new one designed to take advantage of the awesome pomelos I’ve been seeing around this season. It combines the bittersweet pomelo with crunchy jicama and bean sprouts, along with cilantro, peanuts, fried shallots, and a sweet-and-hot Thai-style lime-based fat-free dressing. Grapefruit would work just as well if you can’t find pomelo.
