Christmas delight: Perfecting your vegetable salad secrets

Vegetable salad often appears on my table during Christmas. My family loves this simple dish, which contains many healthy and tasty ingredients. However, some of them can make the salad watery.

To prevent the vegetable salad from becoming watery, choosing the right ingredients is crucial. All vegetables should be fresh and thoroughly dried after cooking. It's advisable to avoid storing them in the refrigerator before preparing the salad, as chilled vegetables tend to release excess moisture.

Another important step is cooking the vegetables whole, rather than cutting them before cooking. This way, they retain more flavour and structure, which means less water. It's also very important to drain ingredients that were previously in brine - such as pickles or corn. If you don't do this, the brine will seep into the salad, making it watery and causing it to lose flavour quickly.

Remember to limit the amount of salt added to the salad during preparation. The best solution is to add it to the salad just before serving. This minimizes the risk of the salad becoming watery.

If, despite following the above guidelines, the salad is still too moist, you might try additional tricks. Consider adding potatoes, a small amount of potato starch, or rice cereal to absorb excess water. Alternatively, place the finished salad in a colander a few hours before serving, allowing excess liquid to drain.

The key to success is proper storage. The best way to keep vegetable salad fresh is in the refrigerator, in a tightly sealed container, to prevent loss of freshness and excessive absorption of moisture from the outside. Avoid freezing, if possible, as thawing significantly worsens the texture of this dish.