Salad equipment and supplies are of great importance, just like the other commercial kitchen equipment, to help you smoothly sustain your workflow. It does not matter whether you only serve salad to accompany your main dish as a side or offer an extensive salad buffet to let your customers have what they want. You need to present the freshest products and tastiest mixes to satisfy your customers.
U.S. Department of Agriculture states that vegetables are crucial for body health as the primary source of minerals like potassium, folate, and vitamins such as vitamin A and C. These minerals in the vegetables help stabilize the blood pressure, and the vitamins contribute to the wellness of our eyes and teeth. Additionally, they offer low calories and fat, which will also lower blood cholesterol. As a result, regularly eating vegetables will positively affect our health.
Additionally, salads are pretty easy to prepare when you have the necessary salad items. Using different vegetables and fruits, you can create an eye-catching presentation in a salad bar or next to the main dish. Furthermore, salads are tasty and refreshing options as a part of your diet during a busy day.
Because these facts are also promoted for public awareness, people prefer to consume more vegetables as a part of their daily intake. According to a survey by OnePoll, American people consume salads four times a week, and about 62% of people prefer salads as a side to their dishes.
So, when you run a restaurant, food truck, pizzeria, hotel, or have a catering business serving schools or senior living centers, you need to serve vegetables and salad to attract more customers or address people’s dietary preferences. However, preparing enough salad in a commercial kitchen requires professional salad equipment and supplies to keep your personnel supplied with enough volume and variety.
Why do You Need to Select and Use the Correct Salad Equipment in Preparing Salads & Dressings?
Commercial kitchens rely on their equipment to consistently present high-quality and tasty food on time. Therefore, to serve delicious salads, you will also need the salad equipment and tools to prepare enough amount to keep up with the orders rapidly. Additionally, you must prepare the salad bar ingredients in large quantities, which will require commercial-grade salad equipment to catch up with the high volume.
What are the Tools & Equipment Used in Preparing Salad?
To ensure that you have the right salad accessories, we have prepared an extensive salad bar equipment list that will facilitate your preparation process and accelerate the salad serving even in the high-traffic restaurants and salad shops.
1. Salad Prep Equipment
What Storage is Needed for the Proper Preservation of Vegetables?
The first phase of salad serving is the arrival of vegetables, fruits, and other ingredients in your establishment. However, these products are perishables and go spoiled in a short time unless they are provided suitable storage. To ensure the safety of veggies and other salad ingredients, you need to keep them in a refrigerated environment. Food and Drug Administration requires the storage of perishable fruits and vegetables at 40°F or below. So, it would be best to have the necessary commercial refrigeration to keep them safe and fresh until served to the customers.
What Equipment do You Need to Make a Salad?
- Salad Prep Tables: One of the most practical ways to prepare a salad for high volume needs is the salad prep coolers, also known as salad prep tables. This salad equipment features a salad pan rail just in front of the countertop to place the frequently needed ingredients within your easy reach. Additionally, salad prep stations also have a commercial refrigerator just under the working space, so you can keep the necessary elements in a chilled cabinet until you need them.
- Vegetable Peeler: When you need to remove the outer cover of the vegetables for your salad, commercial vegetable peelers will remarkably help your workflow.
- Food Processors and Choppers: Even though you generally need only a knife to make a salad at home, it will not suffice for commercial needs. So, food processors and choppers will be your reliable partner to cut, peel, slice and dice the vegetables and fruits rapidly and in large amounts. While food processors stand out as a piece of versatile equipment that can do all these things, you may want to get separate salad equipment such as vegetable slicers, cutters, dicers, or tomato slicers to make sure you have enough production capacity for your needs.
- Chef’s Knives and Cutting Boards: Chef’s knives will be a sharp solution to your salad bar items, and along with a chopping board, you can easily garnish the meals or prepare enough veggies for your customers.
- Salad Dryer & Salad Spinners: Particularly, the leafy vegetables and herbs like lettuce must be washed to keep them away from contaminants. However, when they have water on them, they will quickly get soggy, while oil and dressing will not be able to stick efficiently. So it would be best if you also equipped your commercial kitchen with a salad spinner/dryer to remove the excess water. This will allow you to serve fresh and crispy salads.
- Crouton Dispenser: Croutons are great for enriching the salads and soups with some crispiness. However, when you have a salad buffet full of customers, you need a high volume of croutons. Here, crouton dispensers will be a great help with continuous production.
2. Salad Serving Equipment
When you are done with preparation at the back of the kitchen, you need an efficient system of salad service. This can only be achieved with the right salad equipment and salad bar supplies.
What is Usually on a Salad Bar?
Salad shops or restaurants with salad bars can present numerous options in their bars, and most of the salad bars offer lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, cucumbers, peppers, celery, and onions. Even though there is no limit to the salad bar setup ideas and the things that can be added to this salad bar items list, you can also enrich yourself with cheese, eggs, and beans to add some protein in addition to dries fruits like nuts, and berries.
What is the Salad Equipment for Salad Serving?
- Salad Display Fridge: If you want to offer a salad buffet in your establishment, you need a salad display fridge which is also called a salad display counter. This type of salad equipment presents a large open top where the salad buffet items are delivered in chilled drop-in pans.
- Refrigerated Countertop Salad Bar: When you want to use your counter for multiple purposes, tabletop salad bars/ refrigerated countertop salad bars will provide functionality and practicality by enabling you to use your space as a salad bar when needed. Additionally, these units are suitable for use as portable salad bars to move them around in your establishment or transfer them to other places for outdoor events.
- Soup Kettles: Some restaurants offer all-you-can-eat salad bars, and soups can also be an excellent addition to them. So, you can also prefer to add such salad bar equipment, which will allow your customers to enjoy the warmth of a bowl of soup while waiting for the orders.
- Sneeze Guard: The salad buffet lets customers peruse the items in the bar and grab what they want. Thus, they have open sides or tops, making them vulnerable to the contaminants from customers and other outer sources. So, installing a sneeze guard will undoubtedly help prevent cross-contamination, particularly just after a global pandemic.
- Salad Bowls, Salad Crocs, Salad Pans, and Other Salad Accessories: You can also prefer to serve your salad variety through other utensils other than salad pans in the salad bar refrigerator. Wooden salad bowls will be a smart option, and your customers can easily reach the products inside with the help of a salad tong.
3. Salad Dressing Equipment
The taste of salad is maximized with the addition of oil, salt, spices, and suitable salad dressings. However, it would help if you equipped your establishment with appropriate salad equipment to allow your customers to reach the condiments easily. Salad dressing dispensers and containers provide a practical way to present delicious dressings and toppings.
When you want to prepare the dressing in your commercial kitchen, you can start by getting a garlic peeler and press, which will help you prepare enough garlic for your sauce and flavorings. In addition, you can get a commercial juicer to squeeze enough lemon juice to flavor the salads.
Sandwich and Salad
Refrigerated Sandwich and Salad Prep Tables: Salads are not only consumed as a side or in a bowl. They are also great when added to the sandwiches. You can carry the taste of your sandwich by placing some lettuce and onions. Likewise, people prefer sandwiches as their breakfast for a mid-day snack. So, you can boost your sales by getting a salad prep station to offer pre-packaged sandwiches for the commuters and passers-by. This type of salad equipment will help you enrich your inventory with more products and enlarge your customer volume with tasty sandwiches.
Conclusion
In conclusion, salad equipment will undoubtedly enrich your menu with vibrant fruits and vegetables, which offer a healthier diet. Commercial food serving establishments need to equip their places with durable, versatile, and practical salad equipment to accelerate salad prep, while they need suitable salad bar equipment to serve the customers efficiently.
