Salad with Balsamic Vinegar - General Cooking Principles
Balsamic vinegar, it would seem, appeared recently on the shelves of the store - in beautiful bottles of thick glass with Italian words on the label. But in fact, this unusually useful product is known for more than fifteen hundred years. True, it was originally used as an anti-inflammatory medicine - the very name “balsamic” testifies to this - from the Italian word balsamic. And only later, having managed to understand how balsamic vinegar is useful for a healthy person, doctors began to advise to use this product in food, filling them with salads and cereals.
How to prepare balsamic vinegar? The secret of cooking has long been revealed - the grape juice is cooked until it thickens, and later it is given time for aging. Some expensive types of vinegar can be aged up to 15 years in oak barrels - like brandy or wine!
Why is this product useful? Anti-aging effect, strengthening the immune system, antiseptic properties - this is a small list of those effects that balsamic vinegar gives. The most relevant use of this product is balsamic vinegar. Vegetable, meat, seafood - any salad with just a drop of balsamic vinegar will change its taste characteristics for the better.
Salad with balsamic vinegar - preparation of products and dishes
How to get the "right" balsamic vinegar? By and large, any product sold under this name is balsamic vinegar.
However, given the ever-increasing popularity of this product, many manufacturers tend to produce more and more product at a low price. In no case do not buy balsamic vinegar in plastic bottles, as well as at a price significantly lower than the average price of products.
What dishes to prepare for a salad with balsamic vinegar?
First of all, prepare yourself a workplace. Required attributes - a cutting board, a knife, several plates where you will fold the components of the salad.
Salads with balsamic vinegar are best served in deep porcelain plates. Most recipes have vegetables, and therefore the most appropriate serving in deep dishes. But you can also serve salads on flat plates.
Salad Recipes with Balsamic Vinegar:
Recipe 1: Salad with Balsamic Vinegar
Very appropriate use of balsamic vinegar in seafood salads. Try a salad with balsamic vinegar and shrimp. For this dish, you will need besides shrimp iceberg lettuce, cherry tomatoes and mozzarella cheese.
Ingredients Required:
- Shrimp 400 grams
- Mozzarella cheese or low-fat brynza 200 grams
- 7-9 cherry tomatoes
- Iceberg lettuce 6 sheets
- For dressing - olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt, pepper
Cooking method:
Boil the shrimp in boiling water for 5 minutes in salted water. Cool and clean.
Cut the cheese with a sharp knife into cubes.
Wash the tomatoes. Cherry need to cut each in half.
Set aside half of the lettuce leaves to decorate the dish, and tear up the rest with your hands after having washed them.
Put the ingredients of the dish on a plate, decorating it with leaves of salads. Sprinkle the ingredients with oil, balsamic vinegar, salt to taste.
Recipe 2: Salad with balsamic vinegar and Italiano ham
It is believed that of all nationalities Italians like to add balsamic vinegar to salads most of all. This salad is very famous in Italy, and you can taste its fresh taste!
Ingredients Required:
- Ham 250 grams
- Hard cheese 150 grams
- Cherry tomato 10 pieces
- Basil
- Black olives without stones 100 grams
- Fresh parsley
- For dressing - olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt
Cooking method:
Ham cut into thin strips.
Wash greens and cherry tomatoes in cold water. Cherry cut in half each, and chop basil and parsley.
Cut the olives in half.
Cheese should be grated on a fine grater.
Mix ham with vegetables and herbs, sprinkle with oil and vinegar, salt. Sprinkle with grated cheese before serving.
Recipe 3: Salad with balsamic vinegar "Sicily"
By and large, the salad with balsamic vinegar "Sicily" is a vegetable, although one of the components is smoked sausages like "Hunting". However, you can make a salad without them.
Ingredients Required:
- Smoked sausages 200 grams
- Bulgarian red pepper 1 piece
- Bulgarian yellow pepper 1 piece
- Ripe tomatoes 2 pieces
- Black olives 100 grams (seedless)
- Basil, fresh parsley
- For dressing - olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt
Cooking method:
Smoked sausages cut into round slices.
Pepper, tomatoes and herbs wash well. Pepper seed, cut tails. Cut it into thin slices.
Cut tomatoes into large slices.
Chop the greens with a knife.
Olives cut each in half.
Mix vegetables and chopped sausages, add balsamic vinegar and olive oil to the salad "Sicily".
Recipe 4: Salad with Balsamic Vinegar and Tuna
This salad is cooked very quickly - in just 10 minutes you will get a tasty dish. At the heart of the dish is canned tuna, best of all give preference to canned in their own juice. In addition to tuna, you will also need chicken eggs and fresh cucumber.
Ingredients Required:
- Canned food - tuna in own juice of 1 bank
- Chicken egg 2 pieces
- Fresh cucumber 1 piece
- Green salad
- For dressing - olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt
Cooking method:
Open the canned tuna, drain the juice, mash the fish with a fork.
Boil a hard-boiled egg, peel off the shell, cut it into small pieces with a knife.
Cut the cucumber with a knife into thin slices.
Lettuce tear hands.
Mix the fish with vegetables, sprinkle with balsamic vinegar and olive oil, salt.
Recipe 5: Salad with balsamic vinegar and cheese
In this recipe there are only three main ingredients - cheese, olives and tomatoes, but, nevertheless, the dish turns out to be incredibly tasty and satisfying.
Ingredients Required:
- Feta Cheese 200 grams
- Tomatoes 3 medium size
- Black olives without stones 100 grams
- Olives green 100 grams
- Fresh basil
- Fresh parsley
- For dressing - olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt
Cooking method:
Fet cut into large cubes.
Olives and olives cut each into 3-4 ringlets.
Rinse the tomatoes and greens well. Parsley and basil cut with a knife, but not too shallow. Cut tomatoes into large slices.
Mix tomatoes, cheese and olives, add greens. Sprinkle the salad with balsamic vinegar and oil, mix and salt.
Salad with balsamic vinegar - secrets and tips from the best chefs
In addition to meat and vegetable salads, you can also prepare fruit salads with balsamic vinegar. Mix the chopped fruits, and sprinkle them with vinegar - it will give the sweet dish a slight peculiar sourness.
If you season, the salad is not vegetable oil, but sour cream, you can also add balsamic vinegar to the salad. In this case, instead of salt in the dish, add a little soy sauce.
Balsamic vinegar emphasizes the taste of cheese, tomatoes and eggs - if these ingredients are present in the dish, feel free to add a few drops of balsamic vinegar to the salad.
Do not confuse balsamic vinegar with wine. Wine vinegar is obtained from fermented wine, and balsamic from grape juice. Wine vinegar has the same color as the balsamic, but not so useful and has different taste characteristics. In addition, wine vinegar is somewhat cheaper than balsamic vinegar. Of course, wine vinegar can also be used, but you will not get the expected value from it.
Despite the fact that balsamic vinegar is very useful, use it very moderately. Any vinegar increases the acidity of the stomach and can lead to gastritis due to excessive consumption. A few drops on a plate of dishes - this is the correct and safe dose of balsamic vinegar.
Balsamic vinegar has a high calorie content. This is another caution against consuming large amounts of vinegar.
