The Final Step That Takes Your Salad From Good to Great

by David Tamarkin

I started last night's salad the way I start all of them: With the dressing. I whisked olive oil, mustard, and lemon juice in a big steel bowl (the better to hold all of the salad ingredients). I had some Japanese mayonnaise in the fridge, so I put a little of that for a bit of creaminess, too. I seasoned, I whisked. And as the dressing turned silky, I seasoned some more. Then I piled in the chopped romaine and tossed it.

Next: An avocado, sliced and beautifully fanned out over top. (Actually, that’s a lie. I sort of threw those slices haphazardly over the lettuce. I was eating alone, what do I care about an avocado fan?) Finally, a handful of pepitas and some Microplaned parm. I started eating the salad right out of the bowl.

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But one bite in, I stopped. It wasn’t right.

It needed salt.

Not in the dressing—that was fine. And not in the pepitas (which were salted). Just a final sprinkling over the top of the salad to give it life.

Sending a dish to the table with a final sprinkle of salt and/or drizzle of olive oil is always a smart move, but though we usually remember to do it with a pan-roasted chicken breast or a platter of roasted vegetables, salads usually get overlooked.

Maybe we forget to give salads a final seasoning because we toss them in highly seasoned dressings, which in theory cover any salt needs. But in the case of my salad last night—and many salads you have probably made, too—there were ingredients that were on top of the salad rather than tossed in. That’s how I like it. But that means my avocados were unseasoned, and even a salty pumpkin seed, or a flake of parm, couldn’t bring the salad together. But salt? Salt is the great unifier. And few dishes need as much unifying as salads do.

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Salting salads also comes with a bonus: A tiny layer of texture. A big, flaky finishing salt like Maldon gives a salad moments of crunch. Even table salt, sprinkled on top at the last minute, can add a microcrunch, if you eat your salad quickly enough. Which, if you’ve given it that final sprinkling of salt, you will.

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photo: Romulo Yanes