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How to Build Your Own Salad Mix


So many Spring and Summer tossed green salad recipes call for a ‘spring mix’ and while these are generally readily available at the shop, here are some tips on how to amp up traditional leafy lettuce and create your own mix to step up your salad game. 

Use these options for color and texture - remove the core and keep the leaves whole or chop into smaller bite-sized pieces.

  1. Radicchio is from the chicory family and is an intensely flavoured vegetable. You’ll recognize it from its red wine coloured leaves with white veins and is grown in round heads. It has a very distinct bitter and spicy flavour.
  2. Treviso is a type of radicchio that grows in more of an elongated shape. It’s more delicate and less bitter than the radicchio mentioned above.
  3. Endive is a leafy green also hailing from the chicory family. It’s a crisp and bitter vegetable, thus it lends well to salads. While there are a few different types of endive, the most common you may have seen is the white endive. It has a cylindrical shape with creamy white leaves and light green edges. There is also a red endive that is more mild and less bitter in taste.
    • The leaves of the endive can simply be torn from the core and added to a salad.
    • Use whole leaves as an edible cup for serving appetizers! 


Here are some ideas on how-to mix up these vegetables into a salad:

  • Whole leaves of radicchio, treviso and endive simply on a plate with sliced apple, crispy prosciutto and a slightly sweet dressing (add some honey or maple syrup to a classic vinaigrette).
  • Add sliced radicchio to a coleslaw mix to add a lovely bitterness and for colour.
  • Add radicchio to a spring mix from the shop along with parmesan cheese crisps, sliced apple or pear and a simple champagne vinaigrette.
  • Try leaves of radicchio, sliced treviso and endive leaves together in a salad with citrus segments, toasted almonds, parmesan cheese and red wine vinaigrette.

Summer Salad Dressing Inspiration: https://www.italiancentre.ca/pantry-staples-for-summer-salad-dressings