The Dressing Technique That Leaves Every Bite Of Salad Packed With Moisture

Whether you're saucing up your greens with Alex Guarnaschelli's ratio for perfect salad dressing or you're breaking out Bobby Flay's secret salad dressing ingredient, there's one key factor that can make or break your dish. It's the method you use to actually incorporate the dressing. If you've noticed that restaurant salads often seem to taste better than the ones you toss together at home, there's a simple technique they're using that you're not: They layer the salad with dressing as they build it, rather than glopping it all on in one go.

Implementing this simple yet effective change can ensure every bite is moist and well-dressed, with no big sections of dry, bare greens to contend with. It will also help you avoid that unsavory "salad soup" that can happen when you reach the bottom of the bowl and find much of your dressing has collected there. This can occur when a salad is overdressed in general, but saucing in light layers as you go will ensure a well-balanced result.

The process is simple: As you plate your salad, drizzle just a small amount of dressing onto each level of greens before adding the next layer of ingredients and repeating. Don't overdo it — a little bit of a flavorful dressing goes a long way, and you're going to have multiple well-dressed layers at the end, adding up to a perfect amount of taste and moisture.

The layering technique can also help to prevent the bulk of your salad toppings from collecting at the bottom, ensuring instead that a balanced amount is included in each bite. It's frustrating to consume all your greens and reach the depths of the serving bowl, only to find a heap of uneaten cheese, nuts, and other veggies with no more lettuce to enjoy them with. Sprinkling in your adornments — from croutons and fruit to nuts and protein — as you layer your lettuce and dressing will ensure each mouthful has a harmonious amount of sauce and garnishes. You might not even have to toss or mix before tucking in.

There's also a clever way to add nuts to your salad for even distribution, and to keep heavy pieces from collecting in the dregs. Rather than dropping in whole nuts or large chunks, finely chop and mix them right into the dressing itself. This is a great shortcut for your layering efforts, ensuring each bite contains the nutty crunch you want. Incidentally, this can also work with large seeds like pepitas. 

Useful tip: Don't add the nuts too early — wait until just before you begin building the salad, so they absorb some of the dressing's flavor, but don't get overly saturated and too moist. As always, serving the salad immediately is also best, so your other beautifully-layered ingredients don't absorb too much liquid, either.