Skip to main content

Healthy, Craveable Salads

RSS Color Crunch Kale Blend_Garbanzo Garlic Salad

Redefining Fresh, Together

Differentiating your operation with dishes worthy of return visits (and free social media publicity) is critical to success.
While portaable comfort foods such as pizza and chicken tenders dominated customer orders over the pandemic, surveyed diners now want to factor in healthy ingredients. This is where operators can meet these needs with innovative salad options that combine different flavors, textures, and colors. Offering delicous, distinct entrée and side salads will satisfy cravings and boost orders, a win-win.

Employee shortages are also affecting how quickly operations can return to (the new) normal. Cutting labor costs, reducing food waste, and ensuring the highest level of food safety are all pain points that can be solved by using Ready-Set-Serve® (RSS) Salads.

Markon partners with farmers that ensure freshness, quality, and safety at every point in the field to kitchen journey. We pride ourselves on connecting chefs to growers, facilitating innovation and ensuring social responsibility.

Pre-washed, chopped in a number of ways, and packed in convenient sizes, the RSS product line can reduce back of the house labor and allow operators to do what they do best: create!

Benefits of RSS Salads

• Staff Safety: No knife use for precut products reduces risks of injury.
• Health & Sanitation: Precut, prewashed products reduce cross-contamination risks.
• Waste Reduction: With less waste, you lower disposal costs.
• Labor Savings: As labor costs rise, the stable cost of RSS products protects your profit margin. When labor turns over, you save training and efficiency costs.
• Culinary Creativity: RSS takes the prep work out of the kitchen and allows chefs to focus on flavor and creativity.
• Quality Assurance: Markon’s 5-Star Food Safety Program addresses five key points in the production process.
o Fields
o Packing and Processing Facilities
o Transportation
o Distributor Warehouses
o Foodservice Kitchens

Refresh your menu with these on-trend ideas

• Toss RSS Heritage Blend with the anise flavors of roasted fennel and the earthiness of golden beets; garnish with Parmesan frico and toss with house-made dressing.
• Mix RSS Chopped Romaine with chunky MFC Cucumbers, MFC Tomatoes, and crisp bacon to serve America’s favorite sandwich in a salad format.
• Top sweet, yet smoky wedges of MFC Eggplant with tangy goat cheese, crunchy RSS Romaine, Cabbage, and Kale Blend, and toasted pine nuts; drizzle with a white wine vinaigrette.
• Combine cooked bowtie pasta with RSS Urban Blend, sliced MFC Cherry Tomatoes, and house-made pesto sauce.
• Heat garlic oil, coriander, cumin, turmeric, salt, and chili flakes in a wok, then add RSS Kale Color Crunch, RSS Peeled Garlic, and cooked garbanzo beans. Toss and serve warm.
• Top RSS Spring Mix with ripe, quartered figs or apricots and Burrata cheese; drizzle with balsamic glaze.
• Toss RSS Heart-Y Slaw with creamy blue cheese dressing; top with spicy Buffalo chicken tenders.
• Mix together RSS Hearts & Hearts, grilled RSS Bite-Size Cauliflower Florets, and tender roasted beets.
• Add Thai ingredients to RSS Washed & Trimmed Green Leaf Lettuce; top with shaved papaya, satay chicken, chopped MFC Cucumbers, and roasted peanuts. Drizzle with a bold passion fruit-jalapeno dressing.
• Serve a make-your-own Cobb salad with a choice of RSS Chopped Romaine or RSS Shredded Iceberg, plant-based meat options, grilled chicken, diced RSS Avocado Halves, hard-boiled eggs, Canellinni beans, and crisped prosciutto, and crumbled blue cheese.
• Allow customers to customize the classic taco salad with mix-and-match ingredients like chili-seasoned meat (animal or plant-based), chopped MFC Tomatoes, RSS Avocado Pulp, RSS Shredded Iceberg, stewed black beans, sour cream, shredded cheeses, and a variety of salsas.

• Fill RSS Lettuce Jammers with chopped chicken, chunks of MFC Cucumbers, sliced RSS Avocado Halves, RSS Color Shred Carrots, and RSS Sliced Red Onions—serve with house dressing or a variety of dipping sauces.
• Arrange grilled MFC Asparagus, RSS Grapefruit Sections, RSS Wild Arugula on a serving platter; top with toasted sunflower seeds and citrusy vinaigrette.
• Combine watermelon, mango, MFC Mint, RSS Sliced Red Onions, and goat cheese with of watercress.

Inspired Salad Toppers
Trend data shows that consumers want salads that are craveable, provide a variety of textures, and add flavor through additional toppings. Experiment with these to upsell the salads on your menu.
• Protein: Garbanzo Beans, Ricotta or Burrata, Fried or Boiled Eggs, Bacon or Pork Belly.
• Texture: House-Made Croutons, African Fonio, Asian Noodles & Pasta, Garlic Confit.
• Crunch: Pomegranate, Cucumbers, Shaved Fennel, Fried Shallots, Brussels Sprouts.
• Smokiness: Grilled Stone Fruit, Roasted Eggplant, Charred Cauliflower.
• Vibrant Color: Watermelon Radishes, Tomatoes, Roasted Beets, Citrus Sections.

Diners are increasingly hyper-focused on high-protein and plant-based foods. Alongside all of the new-fangled, lab-based, cell-cultured options out there is the humble bean. A staple food for millenia, beans are being re-examined as a healthy, versatile ingredient worthy of menu inclusion.

  • Retro and heirloom recipes—like Southern succotash, French cassoulet, and Cajun red beans and rice—fit the bill for those in search of authenticity.
  • Most world cuisines incorporate some type of bean in their classic dishes. Think feijoada in Brazil, black beans and rice with plantains in Puerto Rico, and garbanzo beans in Israel. Modern interpretations of these recipes are packed with produce and herbs.
  • The creamy texture of mung beans is proving an ideal substitute for those that are eliminating soy from their diets.