When choosing a wine to match salad, just remember: It’s all about the dressing.
Like the perfect seasoning on a great cut of steak, choosing the right wine for your meal brings both to another level. You’re probably adept at pairing wine with heartier, meat-based meals, but what about lighter fare, like a fresh green salad or a Caesar salad?
The perfect combination is within reach if you choose carefully. Don’t just think about the salad ingredients, though. When it comes to food and wine matching, it’s all about the salad dressing. The essential info to keep in mind is that high acid dressings, like vinaigrettes, suit equally crisp wines, while creamy salad dressing partners well with fuller-bodied whites. Looking for a wine to match as salad with feta or chèvre? A tkk style of red would be an excellent choice.
Here are five winning food and wine pairings for when you’re serving salad:
Spinach-strawberry salad
A spinach and strawberry salad features both savoury and fresh, fruity flavours.
The salad: Top spinach leaves with toasted almonds, dried cranberries, sliced strawberries, and oranges. Then, make your vinaigrette. Try a base of balsamic vinegar and olive oil with puréed strawberries, Dijon mustard, honey and salt.
Perfect pairing: A fruity Riesling has the crisp acidity to hold up to this vinegar-based dressing, and its fruit notes complement those sweet berries in the salad.
Wedge salad with blue cheese dressing
The salad: A wedge salad is a simple showstopper: Dress a large pie-shaped slice of iceberg lettuce with cut cherry tomatoes, crisp bacon, and bold blue cheese dressing.
Perfect pairing: Red wine lovers rejoice: Many salads don’t pair perfectly with reds, but this flavourful blue cheese dressing creates the delicious exception which would be complemented by a medium-bodied Merlot.
Grilled chicken and Caesar salad
The salad: A Caesar salad with crunchy romaine, Parmesan cheese and croutons, calls for a fuller-body wine. For a top-notch experience, make your own croutons with day-old bread, olive oil, minced garlic and salt. Pick – or make – a dressing that goes light on the anchovies and then add sliced grilled chicken to make a full, fresh but hearty meal.
Perfect pairing: An unoaked or fuller-bodied Chardonnay is an excellent match for this creamy dressing and the chicken.
Salade Niçoise
The salad: Tomatoes, black olives, capers and beans, plus eggs, tuna, lettuce and potatoes get tossed with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil, garlic, and basil, in a classic Niçoise Salad recipe.
Perfect pairing: This salad gets its name from Nice, France, where it originated. Imagine you’re on the Mediterranean coast and pair this salad with a crisp, dry rosé inspired by that sunny locale.
Goat cheese salad
The salad: Mixed salad greens – arugula, endive, green and red leaf lettuce – topped with goat cheese is the basis of a simple but super-satisfying salad. Add roasted vegetables, like beats, asparagus, peppers or butternut squash to increase the flavour, texture and heartiness factor.
Perfect pairing: Sauvignon Blanc’s bright acidity, signature citrus and herbal notes, partners well with tangy goat cheese and all these greens, creating a fresh combination.
