What do you put in your salads?

[trexed]

Simple as the title really.

I've never really ate them, now desperate for a bit of a health kick and some light food over summer.

What do you put in them?

(Personal choice) Lots of onion - spring, pickled, fresh 😂 lettuce, carrots, peppers, celery, sweet corn, radishes. I also Chuck on pickled red cabbage - I like the tangy taste.

Toppings I usually go for salad cream (again tangy) and have been known to slices boiled eggs or new potatoes or halloumi or salmon into it.

I'm really basic with salads, but have them daily atm for lunch at work because they're so easy to chuck together and can be delicious

• Mixed leaves
• Cherry toms
• Cucumber
• Celery
• Beetroot
• Bell pepper
• Grapes
• Chedder cheese cubes
• "good 4 u" salad topper (I've got 4 I alternate between)
• dressing (again several I alternate)

I get bored of food really easy, so need some variety.

If I fancy meat, I have chicken gujions, ham slices, tinned tuna or minced turkey.

I make salads from whatever I have in the house but I keep some items such as capers, olives, artichokes, fresh herbs etc all the time to add to salads.

If you are not used to putting together salads try some specific popular recipes or look at Anna Jones guide to combining ingredients in salads here:

annajones.co.uk/recipe/make-great-salad

Chicken, pomegranate, feta and fennel with pomegranate molasses and balsamic dressing

Hot smoked salmon and tinned grapefruit with a dressing made from the grapefruit juice

Duck and pomegranate with a hoisin dressing

I make a Waldorf salad. You seen Fawlty Towers? Celery, apples, walnuts, grapes, squeeze of lemon, blob of Mayo. Mix. Black pepper on top. Make too much & store in Tupperware in the fridge for a few days!

Gherkins, olives, sliced cherry tomatoes, romaine lettuce, sweetcorn, garden peas, cucumber, jarred roast peppers.

What do you all do with your chick peas?

Straight from the tin? Roasted?

Straight out the tin.

Tonight for dinner we had a courgette, runner bean, broad bean and feta salad with a garlic and mint dressing and a lettuce, tomato, grated carrot and cooked salmon salad with a mustard and lemon thyme dressing. Served them with new potatoes and they were lovely. Another favourite is spinach, cucumber, tomato, feta, sun dried tomato and sunflower seeds.

@TheYearOfSmallThings I am exactly the same . I would eat healthily if someone made it for me ! I love M&S stuff but can’t afford it all the time

Salad this evening was
Cos, rocket, baby plum tomatoes, cucumber, grated carrot, chopped red pepper, green grapes. I scrunched a small piece of poppadom on the top for a bit of crunch.

Croutons!

If your trying to lose weight bear in mind that dressings, veggies in oil and fried things can really increase the calories. Some salad with dressings etc can be the same as a pizza

Lettuce base - I usually use baby cos, chop top and bottom off, cut in quarters through the middle and separate the leaves
Grated carrot
Thinly slice cucumber- I like the baby cucumber from M&S you can cut into rounds
Cherry tomatoes quartered - I like Piccolino
Sweetcorn
Thinly sliced peppers
Cooked peas - al dente
Always mixed seeds
Sometimes I add quails eggs cut in half / chickpeas for bulk and protein / baby new potatoes / green beans

Usually add olive oil and good quality balsamic vinaigrette

I forgot, always avocado.

Sometime fried halloumi.

Ooh, yes, we have in our fridge & cupboard at all times: capers, anchovies, garlic, fresh herbs from garden/windowsill, chillies, pickled jalapeños, cornichons, olives, a ridiculous array of mustards and vinegars, lemons, limes, fresh ginger, mayonnaise, and various jars of pastes and ~things – I find the salad itself doesn’t really matter, it’s all about the dressing and the zhoozh.

And yes to croutons, hang on to those stale bread ends!

Pumpkin seeds are another nice thing to have in the store cupboard to add to salads.

Theres a dressing I like to add to some of mine which is yoghurt, lemon and garlic.
I feel like there's no rules as to what to make a salad out of, but it's good to get your dressings right.

@stuntbubbles how do you make your croutons? I've had a quick google and although it sounds simple I know (from roasting veg) that I need advice on this "drizzling" business.
With veg I toss and massage in a bag ,would that work with croutons? I would be oven baking them as the thermostat on my hotplates has gone awol .
And how would they be stored ? I guess not for long ?
TIA

Romaine - baby cucumbers - hummus - falafels - sauerkraut - mozzarella and tomatoes. Lush! That’s my baseline and then sometimes mix it up with whatever we have! Tuna Mayo instead of falafels sometimes, with seeds on top, omg 😍

@peridito Yes, shaken up in a bag with olive oil and some mashed garlic then spread out on a baking tray and cooked til crisp. I’ve never kept any: I just use however much old bread we’ve got knocking around and that’s how many croutons I’ll eat that day. Sometimes it’s a very crunchy salad

Thanks @stuntbubbles ,I'm going to give it a go !

On croutons, I sometimes make Parmesan ones for a change. I follow what @stuntbubbles says and then add a couple of tablespoons of grated Parmesan to the mix. I got the idea from Delia Smith's Caesar salad recipe (a truly delicious salad!).

Croutons. Rolos. Chopped up Toffee Crisp. Dress with melted Ben & Jerry's.

I often get the M&S ones and jazz them up abit myself. Add cheese (mozzarella, feta, halloumi etc') and also bulk them out with cucumber, tomatoes, grated cauliflower or grilled veg like asparagus with parmesan. It means they stretch much further too.

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