Artichoke Ceasar Salad

I find it difficult to write actual “recipes” for salads. In my experience, people do not often measure the amount of lettuce, tomato, etc. that they are adding. You add whatever you have on hand and you add how ever much of it as you want. Maybe people don’t eat a lot of salad at home because they are put off by this lack of black-and-white instruction. Maybe they are afraid of making a bad salad. Here’s the thing, though: you can’t really make a bad salad.

Sure, some salads are going to be better than others, but with vegetables, dressing and some sort of lettuce, you really can’t go too wrong.

I like my salads simple and this one is no exception. I used canned artichoke hearts and broke up some garlic toast crackers for croutons. The garlic toasts were a packaged version of crostini that came in a gift basket I received over Christmas. I hadn’t expected to use them, but they proved to be great crouton substitutes. The artichoke hearts were packed in water, not oil, which I find much too greasy. Everything else I already had on hand, like lettuce and light ceasar dressing. The whole thing proved to be incredibly delicious, light and refreshing, in a nice contrast to a lot of heavier winter fare.

This salad can be made for one or for ten. Use or as much or as little of the following ingredients as you want to, but be sure to use croutons of some sort, since a ceasar salad just isn’t the same without croutons.

Artichoke Ceasar Salad
A mix of romaine, iceberg and red cabbage
red onion
artichoke hearts, packed in water
garlic croutons
light ceasar dressing
salt and pepper

Sliver red onion. Chop artichoke hearts into quarters.
Mix lettuces, cabbage, red onion and artichoke hearts in a large bowl with light ceasar dressing. Add croutons and season with salt and pepper, tossing once more before serving.