What do you put in a salad to make it interesting?

[NCTDN]

I'm not a salad fan. I think back to salads when I was young with some lettuce leaves, tomato, a boiled egg in slices and some radish or similar!
How can I make salad tasty? I know a friend adds pine nuts which are tasty. I don't like tomatoes though.

Just a regular salad is elevated by adding chopped nectarine or peach.

Oh my Lord, I need more detail around the grilled peach and cherry salads please! Looking for inspiration and they sound amazing.

Chips!😁

only joking. There is a lovely book called ‘salad love’ and there are loads of ideas in that.

Cheese.

I like a:

feta, red onion and tomato salad
Nectarine and mozzarella salad
Greek salad, with cucumber, toms, olives, feta

Try the Good Food website for more ideas!

It depends what type of salad it is. For a normal side salad I do rocket, mixed leaves piccolo toms, cucumber, spring onion, red pepper all cubed, then top it off with small cubes of extra mature cheddar and lots of chilli flakes. I also love a shopska salad (Bulgarian salad with ewes milk cheese. Delicious.

Feta
Those sweet red peppers that come in a jar
Black olives also the ones that come in a jar
Orzo pasta

Goats cheese and pomegranate seeds
Feta, honey, and pistachios
Feta and chilli beetroots
Sweet chilli halloumi

Anything that makes it a thousand calories basically 😂

Ottolenghi is your friend. His salads are amazing. This one to start with! ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/miso-and-peanut-butter-chickpea-salad

A favorite of ours is little gem lettuce, shaved Parmesan, cooked and cooled peas and a balsamic dressing (bought if you like but easy to make)

I sometimes sprinkle nuts such as walnuts.

I like something warm on a salad especially a little roasted halloumi in chunks that I have air fried with a drizzle of balsamic vinegar.

Agree with this one. Basically any thread about salad, I want to post this link. It’s amazing 🤩

@karmakameleon It's so good! I make it without the peanuts sometimes -we have an allergic person in the family- and it's just as good.

I like baby spinach, cucumber, baby plum tomatoes, radish, red pepper, green olives and something strongly flavoured like pickled beetroot or gherkins, those little red peppers from a jar or even a few slices of jalapeno. Then for protein I typically add a couple of falafels and some humous or some chickpea "tuna" (I'm vegan).

Or a base of green lentils with sliced black olives, sweetcorn and small cubes of cucumber, pepper, red onion. Topped with some avocado and/or vegan feta style cheese.

I usually dress with some kind of simple oil and vinegar combo.

https://www.lollipopai.com/recipe/bbcgoodfood/chicken-satay-salad this is my current favourite salad.

I tend to start any other salad with a Base of leaves (usually baby spinach), cherry toms and cucumber.
Then I add any combination of
Spring onions
Finely sliced banana shallots
Sweetcorn
Tuna mayo
Avocado
Cottage cheese
Chicken
Edamame beans
Radish
Celery
Egg
Prawns

Lettuce is entirely optional!

Couscous or quinoa, roasted cauliflower/ aubergine/ pepper, sunflower/pumpkin/sesame seeds, cucumbers, tomatoes, beetroot, raw peppers, lots of chopped fresh herbs (leafy ones like parsley, mint, coriander).
A nice dressing.

Prob not all the above at once.

Came here to say this. I first went to Italy as an exchange student in late 1990s and was thrilled to discover cubes of emmenthal-type cheese in salads...it was a game-changer for me 😁

I now put absolutely whatever I like in a salad - my favourites are any leaves (ideally any combo of cos/gem/romaine/rocket/lambs lettuce/watercress) plus some of the following:

Slow-roasted cherry toms
Chopped radishes
Obvious stuff such as celery, cuc, started carrot etc
Roasted veg such as courgette, squash, red onion etc
Coronation chickpeas
Crumbled feta
Potato salad (a touch of honey + wholegrain mustard in the dressing)
Coleslaw
Hummous (sometimes I make it with cannellini beans)
Pesto (can be basil plus rocket, spinach, anything green really)

Agggh I bloody love this kind of salad. In contrast, I just took lunch to my elderly grandparents and the salad I did for them (I think of it as an Elderly Mancunian-Irish Salad) was just a platter of carrot sticks, cucumber sticks, whole radishes and whole cherry toms, with ham barms obvs - they were delighted!

Apart from all of the salad vegetables, fruits (raw or cooked), other vegetables (raw or cooked), herbs, pickles, preserved items, cured meat, roast chicken, duck, beef, noodles, pasta, potatoes, spices, seasonings, oils, dressings, quinoa, cheeses, pulses, beans, all of the olives & bread?

Not a lot you can do, really.

Watermelon, strawberries, toasted pumpkin seeds and mint. Added to an ordinary salad drizzled with olive oil and topped with cracked black pepper.

Roasted chick peas and red peppers.

Roasted sweet potato and butternut squash, sprinkle of pine nuts

I make carrot and seed salad Inexpensive ingredients and usually some in the fridge.
Grate carrots. Add in bits of spring onion if you have some or grated apple if you want to.
Dressing 3 tablespoons oil (I like sunflower as lighter taste than olive) tablespoon of apple cider vinegar (or wine vinegar) tablespoon of honey and salt and pepper
Pour on to carrots and mix in mixed seeds - I use Lidl ones

Half a tin of mackerel in olive oil and a couple of rashers of chopped smoked streaky bacon, fried until crispy. EV olive oil, ACV, salt and pepper.

Or chopped feta and black olives with olive oil. All tossed together.

Olives and feta for me. Like a bit of beetroot too

Sliced apple
sliced grape
pomegranate
goat’s cheese
walnut
raw mushroom