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5 crunchy salad toppings

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Sometimes we don’t know what to add to our salads to make them more fun and interesting. For me, it’s BA-SIC to have something crunchy to fell more compelled to eat it. Today I bring you 5 options that you can easily make at home to top your salads: crunchy quinoa, parmesan chips, candied pecans, tortilla chips and crispy serrano ham.

 

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5 crunchy salad toppings for your salad

Ingredients

Crispy quinoa

  • 190 g quinoa rinsed
  • 280 ml water

Parmesan chips

  • 70 g parmesan cheese block, not pre-grated
  • 1/2 tsp paprika
  • to taste pepper
  • 1/8 tsp salt

Crispy Serrano Ham / Prosciutto

  • 8 slices serrano ham or prosciutto

Candied pecans

  • 170 g pecans
  • 60 g sugar
  • 30 g unsalted butter
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 10 ml water

Tortilla chips

  • 200 g tortillas (about 4 tortillas)
  • 20 ml olive oil
  • to taste salt and pepper
  • 1 tsp dried oregano

Instructions

Crispy quinoa

  1. Wash the quinoa if it doesn't come pre-washed.

  2. Cook the quinoa in the water. Put it over a medium heat and when it boils reduce to a minimum and put the lid on. Remove when cooked and dry. This takes about 20min.

  3. Remove the quinoa from the pot and put it on an oven sheet lined with baking paper. Put into the oven at 180C until golden and crispy, removing and stirring every 5min. When you feel it's dry, you can remove the baking paper. It takes about 30min in total.

  4. Keep in an airtight container at room temperature.

Parmesan chips

  1. Grate the cheese finely. It's very important that it's not pre-grated because it melts differently.

  2. Mix the cheese with the paprika, salt and pepper. Shape on top of a baking sheet with baking paper using a cookie cutter. I used about a teaspoon of the mix per circle. Flatten a bit and make sure to leave about 2 fingers between each so they don't melt and become one large cheese chip.

  3. Put in the oven at 180C for 5-10min or until the cheese stops bubbling vigorously (watch video for visual aid).

  4. Let cool and remove from paper.

Crispy Serrano Ham or Prosciutto

  1. Cut the ham however you like; I did small triangles but you could do squares or long strips also.

  2. Put on a baking sheet with baking paper and into the oven at 160C 5-10min or until you see that it's nice and crispy.

Candied pecans

  1. Toast the pecans in the oven at 180C for about 5-10min or until crispy.

  2. Mix the pecans in a pan with butter, sugar and salt. Once the butter has melted completely, add the water and mix. This will melt the sugar completely so it coats the pecans. Let the water evaporate completely and put on a silpat mat keeping them separate. You can also use baking paper or a surface you think won't stick to them.

  3. Let cool completely for maximum crunchiness.

Tortilla chips

  1. Use a clean pair of scissors and cut the tortilla in triangles. Lay on a baking sheet with baking paper and paint with olive oil. Also add salt, pepper and oregano.

  2. Bake at 180C for 10min or until golden, You might have to turn them over depending on your oven.

I hope these are useful and make your salads more interesting and fun to eat 🙂

Reader Interactions

Comments

    • The crispy quinoa is my absolute favourite, I’m obsessed! So glad you liked the post 🙂