ART OF THE BAG; CHEFS TRANSFORM CONVENIENT PREWASHED GREENS INTO INSPIRED SALAD MEALS.

Byline: Natalie Haughton Food Editor

You thrive on salads, but hate washing lettuces. Don't we all.

Like many cooks these days, you probably rely on bags of prewashed greens showing up in ever-new and increasing combinations in market produce sections. Designed for the convenience of busy people pressed for time in the kitchen, they lend themselves to a wealth of beautiful, great-tasting salads.

There are plenty of glorious green and red blends in 4- to 7-ounce bags to choose from - some with fancy names like Bordeaux salad or Siena salad - from various manufacturers under product brands like Ready Pac, Earthbound Farms, Fresh Express, Dole, Trader Joe's and more.

While most packages specify ``no preservatives,'' some even tout the lettuces are organically grown. Even though the packages indicate the greens have been prewashed, some consumers might be more comfortable rinsing them with cold water prior to using.

When buying, regardless of the expiration date on the package, be sure to check that the lettuce hasn't turned brown.

With convenience all the rage, it's not surprising 63 percent of consumers have bought packaged salads or kits in the last six months (according to data from the Produce Marketing Association). Or that the prepackaged salad category increased 15 percent from 1998 to 1999 and is still on the rise, notes Bill Zinke, vice president of marketing at Ready Pac Produce, Irwindale, producer of more than 15 different bagged greens. To spruce up the greens and get some new takes on the salad theme, we asked five Los Angeles-area chefs for inspiration (we took three of them bags of lettuce to transform on the spot). They came up with a wealth of possibilities. One chef even transformed the greens into a warm, wilted green salad in a skillet.

Michel Bardavid, chef-owner of the Secret Garden in Moorpark, opted to use a mesclun blend to make a shrimp nicoise salad and a bibb lettuce mixture for a vegetarian salad.

The nicoise is fresh and colorful and easy to turn out if you have cooked red potatoes, cooked eggs and blanched haricot verts handy. (If not and you're in a hurry, microwave whole potatoes until fork tender and blanch the haricots verts, covered with plastic wrap, in a cup or bowl in a little water, until crisp-tender; chill both before using in the salad.)

To assemble the salad, simply alternate tomato wedges, cooked egg wedges and cooked red potato wedges in a ring around the outside edge of a dinner-size plate. Then toss the prewashed mesclun blend of greens with a lemon vinaigrette (made by combining lemon juice, Dijon mustard, champagne or white wine vinegar, olive oil and chopped fresh tarragon) and arrange in the center of the plate. Top with the haricot verts and cooked shrimp (either cook it yourself or purchase already cooked), which each have been separately tossed with more of the lemon vinaigrette. Add an anchovy and sprinkle the edges of the plate with cracked pepper and chopped fresh parsley for appealing presentation.

Next up, Bardavid turned out a vegetable salad - reminiscent of a chopped salad - in no time flat. ``You can serve this as an appetizer or main-dish salad.'' Figure one bag will make about five to six appetizer or three main-dish salads.

Toss together bibb or butter lettuce, which in this instance was chopped up a bit for easier eating, chopped hearts of palm, chopped cooked asparagus, chopped tomatoes, chopped drained artichokes packed in oil and chopped cooked haricot verts with a balsamic vinegar dressing.

Make the dressing by whisking together, as Bardavid does, a little olive oil, Dijon mustard, salt, pepper, chopped shallots and balsamic vinegar. If time is short, use your favorite store-bought balsamic dressing doctored up with a little Dijon mustard, he advises.

Then pile the vegetable mixture atop a large plate ringed with half tomato slices and cucumber slices - and garnish with bright green blanched asparagus spears. Voila - a picture-perfect salad that has a flowerlike look.

You can mix and match the vegetables in the salad to suit personal taste. And toss on some grilled turkey or chicken pieces (or pick up cooked chicken from the market and cut up) or cooked shrimp or tuna, if desired.

Lisa Biondi, executive chef at Piero, The Next Generation restaurant (her father has owned it for 38 years) in Burbank and a graduate of the California Culinary Academy in San Francisco, came up with two dynamite main-dish creations - a Mediterranean Chicken Salad and a Grilled Salmon and Mango Salad. Both are great for warm-weather eating.

``When I use the bagged greens at home, I wash them (especially spinach) again and spin them dry because I have found them not always completely clean. The bagged mixtures or blends are a good way to get a variety of lettuces and greens without buying all the different ones and combining them yourself.''

Be aware that once the package is opened, the lettuces begin to deteriorate, so plan to use any remaining lettuce within two days.

For the Mediterranean salad, Biondi mixes packaged Bordeaux salad (a red leafy blend) with julienned strips of oil-packed sun-dried tomatoes, a pinch of salt and pesto vinaigrette. Although she makes her own vinaigrette, consumers can shortcut time in the kitchen by purchasing prepared pesto and thinning it out by whisking it with a little lemon juice and olive oil until it has the consistency of dressing. Place seasoned, grilled chicken breast slices atop the greens and sprinkle with toasted pine nuts. Garnish with a few crisp-tender asparagus spears. Another time, she suggests the addition of some crumbled feta cheese.

You can even forget the chicken and add crumbled feta, pitted Greek olives, capers and a basil vinaigrette dressing along with the sun-dried tomatoes and lettuces.

Biondi favors using vinaigrettes and lighter dressings with the bagged lettuces because they are so delicate. Creamy dressings tend to weigh down the greens - unless you are using romaine, she says.

Salmon and mango devotees will be enchanted with Biondi's delicious combination, a take-off of a salad on the restaurant's menu, but prepared with baby spinach instead of the spring mix used this time around.

Place a trio of mango slices in a few different places around the edges of a dinner plate. Then toss the spring greens with a sweet basil vinaigrette (a mixture of garlic, extra virgin olive oil, fresh chopped basil, lemon juice, sugar or a sugar syrup, and salt and pepper) and place in the center of the plate. Add a 5-ounce piece of grilled salmon (brush with an herb and garlic oil, and sprinkle with salt and pepper prior to cooking) to each individual salad. Then drizzle the fish and fruit with a mixture of balsamic vinegar cooked slowly with a little sugar until it turns into a syrup (cool to room temperature before using).

Although he doesn't use packaged greens at the restaurant as they are too expensive, Thomas Munoz, chef-owner of Joe Joe's Restaurant in Sherman Oaks, admits he buys the convenient packaged garden mix (iceberg lettuce and carrots) to use at home to create the salad that brings back childhood memories - with ranch dressing and tomatoes. ``I'm just the average joe joe when I cook at home. If I'm entertaining, I toss the packaged baby greens with my own balsamic vinaigrette and cherry tomatoes.'' He also likes to mix baby romaine with roasted beets, pear slices, toasted hazelnuts and lemon vinaigrette.

But he pulled a couple of more sophisticated ideas out of his hat to add some sparkle to the home cook's repertoire.

First was an awesome warm wilted creation that tastes better than it looks. For each salad, saute two pieces of smoked bacon, chopped, in a large skillet and drain off half of the fat. Then add some chopped shallots, one or two ounces of goat cheese in clumps, about four tablespoons sherry wine vinegar and half a package of baby romaine salad (which contains both red and green lettuces) along with some chopped Belgian endive. Toss over medium heat just until the lettuce is coated and wilted.

``You don't want to cook the lettuce - you just want to wilt it,'' cautions Munoz. Quickly turn out onto a dinner-size plate lined with a few whole pieces of Belgian endive and serve immediately. Smaller portions work well as an appetizer.

For something even more novel and unusual, Munoz created a Mexican- inspired crab-stuffed chile creation. A mixture of crab, cut-up butter lettuce, lobster mayonnaise (mix prepared or homemade mayo with lobster base) was spooned into a roasted and peeled pasilla chile.

Roast the chile over an open flame until charred and then place in a bowl covered with plastic wrap for five minutes before removing the skin, advises Munoz. Serve the chile on a dinner-size plate atop a pile of black beans zipped up with chopped onions, garlic and jalapenos, and surround with a bright red homemade salsa made with chopped fresh tomatoes, onions, cilantro and jalapenos. Drizzle the works with more lobster mayonnaise and add an avocado fan for the finishing touch.

Jean Francois Meteigner, chef-owner of La Cachette, Century City, favors tossing baby spinach with a hard-cooked egg dressing that goes together in minutes. After hard-cooking some eggs, make the dressing by mixing the yolks with mustard, lemon juice, sherry wine vinegar, olive oil and chopped fresh garlic. Top the dressed greens with cooked bacon bits and the chopped cooked egg whites.

Another of his easy favorites is mesclun greens tossed with a raspberry vinegar dressing with a little regular whole grain mustard mixed in. Also fashionable on his home table is an eggless Caesar salad with a balsamic vinaigrette. For his dressing, he combines Dijon mustard with balsamic vinegar, lots of chopped garlic and olive oil and then tosses it with romaine lettuce. The toppers are freshly grated Parmesan cheese and anchovies.

When Olivier Bouillot, chef at Paul's Cafe in Tarzana, uses the bagged greens occasionally at home, he tosses a mesclun mixture with cooked raviolis. Take some already-cooked seafood, mushroom or cheese raviolis, and fry them in some oil until crisp and golden, he suggests. Cut in half and then toss with the greens, a little lemon juice, some extra virgin olive oil, diced shallots and chopped fresh garlic.

Another salad rendition Bouillot likes combines grilled and sliced portabello mushrooms, walnuts, sliced apples or pears and baby spinach with a balsamic vinaigrette.

Now it's time to jazz up your menus with one of the above-mentioned creations - or one of your own.

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8 photos

Photo:

(1 -- 4 -- color) Whip up a warm wilted salad, top right, with goat cheese, bacon bits and sherry vinegar. Thomas Munoz, chef-owner of Joe Joe's in Sherman Oaks, presents a Mexican-inspired creation that includes a crab-and-lettuce-stuffed chile on black beans with tomato salsa and an avocado fan. A vegetable salad, above, has a flowerlike look. A chicken and mango salad, right, sports a sweet basil vinaigrette.

Gus Ruelas/Staff Photographer

(5 -- color) Michel Bardavid whips up a vegetable salad with a bag of prewashed greens in his kitchen at the Secret Garden restaurant in Moorpark.

(6 -- color) Michel Bardavid shows off his shrimp nicoise salad creation, which makes a great summer main-dish offering.

Evan Yee/Staff Photographer

(7 -- color) Lisa Bondi, executive chef at Piero's in Burbank, presents her salmon and mango salad.

(8 -- color) A Mediterranean salad with sun-dried tomatoes, pine nuts, grilled chicken pieces, asparagus, assorted greens and pesto vinaigrette is a winner.

Charlotte Schmid-Maybach/Staff Photographer