Make your salad at last minute. If you must make it ahead of time, add watery veggies such as tomatoes or cukes at last second. Otherwise, their water will leach out as they sit, making for a soggy salad.

Also, use dressing sparingly. Nothing kills a nice salad faster than drowning it.

Finally, here’s a nice trick I learned from my French mother-in-law: make your dressing in the bottom of the bowl before you add your salad. build your salad on top and bring it to the table. The French typically eat the salad course last (though this works best when the salad is a light affair of mainly greens… a powerhouse salad won’t be welcome after the main course..) When you are ready for the salad, simply toss it with a rolling motion.

Here’s an all-purpose dressing I use for this: whisk together evoo and vinegar (4:1), half a garlic clove, finely chopped, a dap of dijon mustard and perhaps a light drizzle of honey, S&P. Yum!