Crunchy bits in salads

[JAZ]

I eat a lot of green salads -- side salads and main dish salads. It occurred to me recently that as much as I like the crunch of vegetables, I really like salads when there's an additional crunch factor -- toasted nuts or croutons, for instance.

What I add, of course, depends on the kind of salad I'm making. If it's an Asian style salad, I'll add crispy chow mein noodles, or toasted almonds or peanuts, or both. Caesar salad requires croutons, naturally. A southwestern or Mexican style salad gets crispy fried tortilla strips on top.

With the abundance of packaged salad toppings in my grocery store's produce section, I have to believe I'm not alone in this.

So what do you add to your salads for that ultimate crunch factor? Store-bought or homemade? Nuts or croutons or something else?

[mkayahara]

Nuts are definitely one of my favourites, whether candied or simply toasted. But, at the risk of invoking the jumped shark, I'd say the ultimate crunch factor is fresh, homemade bacon bits!

[vice]

Croutons (the ones you've just browned in garlic-seasoned butter, of course).

I feel compelled to add that the appeal of crunchy bits extends far beyond salads. Some fresh breadcrumbs browned in olive oil and tossed with pasta, butter, and cheese. Oh yeah.

[maggiethecat]

Pistachios. Color, flavor, crunch. Toujours bacon.

[Lilija]

I like all sorts of textures. I like chow mein noodles, too, with cabbage and pineapple, and a gingery dressing. Bacon, yes, especially with apples, raisins and cheddar floating around in the salad. Pecans, candied, uncandied, toasted, untoasted, are my favorite, though. I only like good homemade croutons in Caesar salad, or panzanella. Mostly I prefer them in soup.

[emmalish]

Pecans. Candied and/or plain. And crunchy apple slices.

[velveeta]

apples

jicama

grape halves

pretzels

celery

radishes

homedone croutons or Cardini brand ceasar variety are pretty good.

[paulraphael]

Pomegranate seeds are a new fave.

[Shalmanese]

Cracklings!

Whenever I'm searing a large piece of meat, I first dice all the trimmings and render them off to use as fat to sear the meat in. Those cracklings almost invariably get tossed on a simple green salad with a nice tart vinaigrette to be eaten standing up while the rest of meal cooks. It's a perfect way of taking the edge off the hunger when good smells are in the air but dinner won't be on the table for a couple of hours.

[Pierogi]

A subject near and dear to my heart. *ALL* my salads have to have crunchy bits in them. The contrast between them and the rest of the textures is at least 50% of the appeal of the salad.

Regular players are croutons, sunflower seeds, nuts (pecans, almonds, pine nuts and pistachios, hate walnuts), pepitas, crispy chow mein noodles, and freeze-dried sweet corn kernals (ohhhhh, the best. Marketed in SoCal by Melissa's specialty produce, and usually found at Bristol Farms. Think corn on the cob, only crunchy...). Sesame sticks from Trader Joe's, those are pretty darn good too, sweet or spicy.

Bacon bits for sure, but they're more of a savory accent for me, rather than crunchy.

Jicama, but I'd still go for a nut or seed in addition. Same with radishes. Love them, but still need the starchy crunch.

*Hanging head in shame* Chun King of all companies, used to sell a fried rice noodle that was to die for. It was packaged like their chow mein noodles, in a cardboard can, but these noodles were super thin, and super crisp, and had a great flavor. I haven't seen them in the supers for a couple of years, and I miss them. They were probably my all time favorite Salad Crunchie Bit.

Trader Joe's sells something called I think "Salad Stuff" or something like that. It's a mix of pepitas, slivered almonds and pine nuts. That's pretty darn good too.

[abooja]

Cracklings!

Whenever I'm searing a large piece of meat, I first dice all the trimmings and render them off to use as fat to sear the meat in. Those cracklings almost invariably get tossed on a simple green salad with a nice tart vinaigrette to be eaten standing up while the rest of meal cooks. It's a perfect way of taking the edge off the hunger when good smells are in the air but dinner won't be on the table for a couple of hours.

This reminds me of a great salad I made a while back with duck fat cracklings over frisée with duck confit and I forget what else. All I remember was the duck and those great cracklings.

[Badiane]

We like smashed up Sesame Snaps...and nuts, croutons, fried noodles and just about anything else. But the Sesame Snaps are our go to crunchie.

[JAZ]

*Hanging head in shame* Chun King of all companies, used to sell a fried rice noodle that was to die for. It was packaged like their chow mein noodles, in a cardboard can, but these noodles were super thin, and super crisp, and had a great flavor. I haven't seen them in the supers for a couple of years, and I miss them. They were probably my all time favorite Salad Crunchie Bit.

I haven't tried the old Chun King ones, but I love these: La Choy rice noodles -- are they similar? They're much better than the regular "chow mein" noodles; ever since I tried them I've never used anything else in my Asian cole slaw.

[stuartlikesstrudel]

We like smashed up Sesame Snaps...and nuts, croutons, fried noodles and just about anything else. But the Sesame Snaps are our go to crunchie.

Are we talking Sesame Snaps as in the semi-candy thing ... thin wafers of sesame seeds in honey/toffee stuff?

I don't think i'd *ever* have thought about that in a salad, but i am starting to imagine how it might work, combined with the right other stuff. They're pretty sweet, but there is that nice sesame flavour coming through.

Or maybe you mean something else (which is cool too, but i'm a bit caught up in sesame snaps now

[Paul Kierstead]

Yup, crispy duck skin from confit is one of my favourites. The rest of the confit is OK too

[nibor]

Sage fried in butter until it is brittle.

[eatenmess]

pretzels???????? not for me.

bacon bits, croutons, candied nuts, crispy noodles and dried strawberries go down well in my mouth.

[Pierogi]

*Hanging head in shame* Chun King of all companies, used to sell a fried rice noodle that was to die for. It was packaged like their chow mein noodles, in a cardboard can, but these noodles were super thin, and super crisp, and had a great flavor. I haven't seen them in the supers for a couple of years, and I miss them. They were probably my all time favorite Salad Crunchie Bit.

I haven't tried the old Chun King ones, but I love these: La Choy rice noodles -- are they similar? They're much better than the regular "chow mein" noodles; ever since I tried them I've never used anything else in my Asian cole slaw.

*THAT'S* them, Janet. I spaced through which embarassing grocery store brand of pseudo Chinese food it was, but La Choy is correct. I haven't seen them here in LaLaLand recently, I was thinking maybe they'd been discontinued. Or maybe I'm just shopping at hipper mega marts than I used to....

They're so good. I gotta look more thoroughly for them.

[JAZ]

Cracklings!

Whenever I'm searing a large piece of meat, I first dice all the trimmings and render them off to use as fat to sear the meat in. Those cracklings almost invariably get tossed on a simple green salad with a nice tart vinaigrette to be eaten standing up while the rest of meal cooks. It's a perfect way of taking the edge off the hunger when good smells are in the air but dinner won't be on the table for a couple of hours.

Excellent idea. I had some skin left over from roasted chicken thighs, so I put it back on the rack and crisped it in a medium oven. Then I chopped it up and sprinkled it over an Asian chicken salad. It was a great addition.

[LuckyGirl]

I often toast nuts and add them to our salads.

Toasted pine nuts, particularly when tossed with romaine, lots of basil chiffonade, grape tomatoes, lemon juice and olive oil.

One of my favorite salads is any kind of lettuce tossed with pomagranite seeds and toasted, chopped walnuts. I usually toss this salad with a lighter olive oil and a really nice fig vinegar that I try to keep on hand.

Also, I love my own lightly pickled beets with a salad dressed in blue cheese dressing. I par-boil the beets but leave them fairly crisp before I pickle them.