Cheap salads - general cooking principles
Sometimes you want to treat yourself and loved ones to some unpretentious, but delicious dish that is easy to prepare and does not require the use of expensive products. Or an unplanned arrival of guests is planned, and there are no funds to prepare a posh feast. In such situations, recipes for cheap salads will come to the rescue. Do not be embarrassed about this wording, because cheap does not mean bad. This is especially true of cooking. Of course, you do not need to buy products of the lowest quality, since cheap salad means only the replacement of expensive products with more affordable, but no less tasty and high-quality products. Also for cheap salads, mainly vegetables, meat or fruits are taken, which can be bought in the nearest store, and not products from elite supermarkets.
As for the replacement of expensive products with cheaper ones, there are plenty of different options available. So, instead of turkey meat you can take regular chicken meat, expensive crab meat can be replaced with crab sticks, instead of red caviar, use capelin caviar, and the liver will be much cheaper than any meat. If the recipe for salad requires mussels, they are unlikely to be able to be replaced with something, you just have to choose the most inexpensive brand. Although in cheap salads a similar product is quite rare. Lime and papaya can be replaced with regular lemon and melon, respectively. As for cheeses and sausages, you can look at the less well-known manufacturers, offering products at a reasonable price.
In general, cheap salads can be any kind: vegetable, meat, fruit or fish. For an inexpensive vegetable snack, you might need carrots, beets, cabbage, or potatoes. Particularly lucky to the owners of summer cottages: in the summer, you can pick tomatoes, cucumbers and all kinds of greens directly from the garden and make a tasty cheap salad. For low-end meat salads, chicken meat or low-cost sausage is most often taken. A simple and tasty fish snack can be made from canned sprats, mackerel or sardines in oil. The general principle of making cheap salads, as such, does not exist. From inexpensive products you can make a variety of salads: regular, puff or ingredients are lined with slides. Depending on the products used, a different dressing is taken: mayonnaise, sour cream, vegetable oil or various sauces.
Cheap salads - preparing food and dishes
Before cooking, all vegetables and meat should be thoroughly washed and dried. If heat treatment is required, the product must be boiled, fried, stewed or steamed. Ingredients can be cut in a variety of ways: cubes, straws, bars, slices or small slices - it all depends on the recipe for cheap salad.
From the dishes you may need a pan, a frying pan, a common bowl or salad bowl, a grater, a cutting board, knives and a garlic press.
Cheap x salad recipes:
Recipe 1: Cheap Salad
Faster and easier this cheap salad, probably, have not yet invented a single snack. A treat is prepared in just 3 minutes, but this does not affect the taste of the dish.
Ingredients Required:
- A can of canned red beans;
- Bank of canned corn;
- A can of canned peas;
- A pack of rye crackers with garlic;
- Mayonnaise.
Preparation Method:
Squeeze the liquid from the beans, corn and peas, put the food into a deep bowl, season with mayonnaise and mix. 5 minutes before serving, pour a bowl of garlic crackers in a bowl and mix the salad in a proper manner.
Recipe 2: Cheap salad with potatoes
Simple and nourishing salad that is great as a side dish to the main dish. Prepared from the most simple and affordable products.
Ingredients Required:
- 5 potatoes;
- Pickled cucumbers - 150 g;
- 1 onion;
- Inexpensive milk sausage - 270-300 g;
- Mayonnaise.
Preparation Method:
Boil the potatoes in a uniform, cool, peel and cut into small cubes. Put the potatoes in a bowl. Cucumbers cut not too small, but not large. Slightly squeeze and add to potatoes. Finely chop the onion, pour over boiling water, put in a bowl. Cut the sausage into small cubes and attach to the rest of the products. Dress the salad with mayonnaise and mix well.
Recipe 3: Cheap salad with melted cheese
Spicy delicious salad that is very easy to prepare and does not require large investments. Especially good to serve such a snack on hot toasts.
Ingredients Required:
- 2 processed cheese;
- 2 chicken eggs;
- Clove of garlic;
- Mayonnaise;
- A few sprigs of parsley;
- Baton.
Preparation Method:
Cheese put in the refrigerator for at least an hour, so that it was then convenient to rub. Boil eggs hard-boiled, cover with cold water, after they cool down - peel and finely chop (or grate). Garlic skip through the garlic press. Chilled curds grate on a coarse grater. Put eggs, cheese and garlic in a bowl, season with mayonnaise and how to mix. Cut the long loaf into slices of equal thickness and lightly dry them in a frying pan. Garlic-cheese mass put on toasted pieces of bread. Garnish with parsley sprigs. It will be even tastier if warm breads smear with butter.
Recipe 4: Cheap Japanese Salad
Excellent hearty snack for every day or for a festive meal. Available and inexpensive ingredients are used for cooking, but no one will think about it, because the salad is very tasty.
Ingredients Required:
- Half a cup of ordinary rice;
- 2 chicken eggs;
- Bank of canned corn;
- Bank of canned fish (pink salmon or tuna in its own juice);
- Mayonnaise.
Preparation Method:
Boil the rice until ready in slightly salted water, drain in a colander and rinse under cold water. After the excess liquid is drained, put the rice in a bowl. Cook hard-boiled eggs, cool, finely chop and add to rice. Squeeze the liquid from the corn and put it in a salad bowl. Fish canned mash with a fork and add to salad. Season everything with mayonnaise and mix thoroughly. You can pour a little juice from canned. Let the salad stand for at least an hour in the fridge so that the rice can soak up the juice. Before serving, you can decorate the dish with finely chopped yolks and sprigs of fresh parsley.
Recipe 5: Cheap chicken salad
Inexpensive salad, which is perfect for receiving guests, and for every day.
Ingredients Required:
- Small chicken breast;
- 2 tomatoes;
- 2-3 small potatoes;
- 2 eggs;
- Bank of canned corn;
- 2 cloves of garlic;
- Mayonnaise;
- Pepper, salt.
Preparation Method:
Boil chicken breast until cooked, cool, disassemble the meat into fibers, add a little salt, pepper and put in a salad bowl. Wash tomatoes, cut with a sharp knife in the form of small cubes. Boil potatoes in a uniform, cool, peel and cut into small cubes. Cook hard-boiled eggs, cool and chop finely. Drain the corn. Garlic very finely chopped or skipped through a special press for garlic. Fold all the ingredients in a salad bowl, season with mayonnaise and mix.
Cheap salads - secrets and useful tips from the best chefs
If you have in mind some of their recipes for making cheap salads, you can use the following tips, which will significantly save on products:
- brown sugar can be replaced with regular sugar;
- instead of lime, take lemon, and instead of lemon, about 10 g of citric acid;
- Honey is quite amiss instead of maple syrup;
- wine vinegar well replaces balsamic;
- ordinary sorrel can easily replace spinach;
- instead of Parmesan cheese, you can use any other kind of hard cheese;
- if white wine is not available, and on its basis it is necessary to prepare the sauce for salad dressing, you can resort to this trick: dissolve 2 cubes of refined sugar in a small amount of vinegar;
- ordinary onions - a great alternative to leeks;
- canned sweet pepper will easily replace artichokes.
