It is the appearance of your food that creates the appeal and appetite first and only after that comes the aroma and taste part of it. A well decorated dining table is a delight for your guests even if the quantity is less.
Since salads mostly comprise of raw, colorful and crispy ingredients, they can be decorated in so many different ways that make it appealing and beautiful.
Salad decoration ideas
Following are some of the salad decorating ideas and tips that could help you to make beautiful looking salads that are nutritious as well.
- Salads must always appear very colorful when decorated. You should learn to mix and match the colors of your ingredients in a way that contrasting colors sit next to each other. For example, slice cucumber next to tomatoes adds to a very good contrast so is an array of sliced hard boiled eggs that presents beautiful yellow and white rings. Usually green, yellow and red colors add a lot to the looks of your salad
- If you happened to have a lot of brownish or darkish ingredients, move them separately into another bowl. Less colorful ingredients may go to non-transparent (non-glass) bowls, so that most of their volume is hidden
- Your whole leafy ingredients such as a lettuce bunch should be arranged towards the edge of the plate than center. However, chopped leaves can appear anywhere. Some even spray a few drops of water using a hand sprayer to the leaves to give it spring fresh looks
- As much as possible, use good glass bowls to present and serve salads for individual use. At the same time, make sure that the larger quantities (group sharing) are decorated around a big sparkling white clay plate so that it highlights all those beautiful colors
- All vegetable ingredients should be thoroughly chilled (and washed) before serving
- If you have ingredients that turn brown after cutting (e.g. apple), you may serve them just before the consumption or use lemon juice based dressing to dip them
- Sprinkling beautiful looking nut pieces or chopped spring onion etc can enhance the look of salads especially when arranged in big quantities
- Avoid serving dripping vegetables or fruit cut pieces along the side of the plates
- Make sure that your salad dressing doesn’t affect the color and looks of your salad. If at all possible, keep the dressing bowls separately so that your guests could help themselves
- Use a clean table linen – preferably white – when you present salads. If you use flowery designs or other colors, it may camouflage your beautiful food
- Arrange your cutlery neatly near to the plates and bowls than putting them into the plates or bowls
- For group serving, make sure that you have the tongs kept on a small plate near to the salad plate. Salads can spill over and mess with the appearance of your arrangement in no time. Similarly, dressing bowls have to be kept on suitable saucers as well
- If you are good at vegetable art, you may consider a few vegetable designs with carrots, cucumber or watermelon that are edible themselves
