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.

Look up Lucy Lord on Insta/Google.
She has written 2 cookbooks and the 1st has a chapter on "No shit salads."

My MIL is a big fan of that awful bland salad described by PP - iceberg lettuce leaves, whole tomatoes & cucumber slices 😒 She still eats 1970s food - gammon & chips, prawn cocktail etc when she goes out for meals.

Is that the Spanish Inquisition 😆😆😆

Things I like to add:

• roasted veggies (new potatoes, asparagus are my favorite at the moment).
• pickled onions, pickled artichokes
• roasted nuts
• fresh herbs (mint / parsley / basil)
• crumbled feta, mozzarella
• orzo or giant couscous is nice to mix through

And a lot of it is about dressing. At the moment I am obsessed with Greek yoghurt based dressings (I add olive oil, lemon juice, a bit of mustard, salt, pepper).

There are three main ingredients required in a salad: lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes and a fanatical devotion to avocado.

FOUR. There are four main ingredients required in a salad: lettuce, cucumber, tomatoes, a fanatical devotion to avocado and lashings of olive oil-based dressing.

AMONG THE INGREDIENTS REQUIRED are ... I'll come in again.

I'm a big fan of a Greek style salad but without olives cos I don't like those evil little buggers. So I add crumbled feta and a nice dressing made of olive oil/lemon juice/garlic/oregano

My favourites are a Greek Salad, and a pile of spinach/rocket with slightly grilled goats cheese on top, a pile of chopped strawberries, and balsamic dressing. Yum!

Roasted veg, as a few people have already mentioned. I'm a big chickpea lover, sometimes roast them with paprika or chile powder first to add more flavour.

herbs, basil, coriander
celery
feta
beetroot
brown lentils
olives

What everyone else said but I really like a bit of dry crunch to finish it off. Either croutons or toasted seeds, a few crushed tortilla chips, crispy roasted chickpeas, even a few seeded crackers broken up.

Fresh peas
Cold asparagus and green beans that par boil for a minute and then chill with iced water
Sweet corn niblets
Homemade croutons...pull bits of French stick and stir fry in hot butter or oil until crispy..plenty salt n coarse black pepper

Cobb salad

Quorn cocktail sausages, Quorn scotch eggs, Not quite ripe peaches/nectarines, watermelon, nuts, seeds, butter beans, red kidney beans, sesame seed oil for a lovely toasted taste, feta, black olives, orange slices, pickled walnuts, gherkins, Polish herrings, pickled veg.

Not all together!

As many colours as possible is my go to.

I've just had a salad which had red gem lettuce, red onions, green pepper black beans, tomatoes, sweetcorn, avocado, topped with a bit of Guacamole and salsa and a few Tortilla crisps scattered on top. It's one of my favourites.

We call the 1970’s salad Industrial Salad. It is served by my MIL with reformed ham, white bread and butter, and lukewarm salad cream. I’m not a fan 🤢
I like grilled figs, Parma ham, soft goats cheese and watermelon and rocket drizzled with balsamic vinegar. Oh, and a glass of wine to wash it down.

I love pomegranite seeds - colourful and delicious

Several days each week;
Rocket, olives, tomatoes, cucumber, sliced radish, chopped beetroot, spring onions, chopped meat (ham or chicken) sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds. Blackberry vinegar & very nice olive oil

Once a week: celery, apple, grapes, walnuts, radishes, cucumber & mayo.

Once a week: chickpeas, cucumber, sundries tomatoes, olives, feta cheese, spring onions. Oil & vinegar

Occasionally- puy lentils, pomegranate seeds, flaked mackerel, whatever veg I have leftover

Well now I know what a 'Big Salad' is 🙈 half of these are full meals. I kept picturing my 1970s salad every time someone posted about being stuffed and enough salad to last 6 months. 😂

Things I have in salad

Meat / chicken / tuna - I like nice ham from the butcher
cheese - cheddar or parmasan or mozarella
Boiled eggs
jacket potato slices or pasta
steamed green beans
leaves, tomato, red onion or spring onion
chickpeas
sweetcorn
a nice dressing - balsamic glaze or honey mustard

To lower the tone, and to contrast with my previous Ottolenghi recommendations, I love those crunchy fake bacon bits. They go brilliantly on any salad with Thousand Island dressing. Morrison's salad bar is good...

I used to love the prawn layered salads Marks sold. Don't know if they still do but I've recreated them at home. Prawn, marie rose sauce, grated carrot, chopped cue, sweetcorn, tomato and pasta. Might have been lettuce too

Some crunch, some protein, some flavouring.

I'm making a salad tonight of romaine hearts, feta cheese, watermelon, black olives, fresh mint and thyme. I like the mix of herby flavours, saltiness, the refreshing fruit and the crunch of the lettuce.

Another time, I might make a salad with toasted walnuts, beetroot, lambs lettuce, blood orange.

Flowers are Greta at lifting a salad. Chive flowers are perfect right now, pretty, pop of colour and a little hint of onion without being over powering.
My teenager likes violets as they are sweet, I grow both just for salads. Nasturtium are good later on as they are peppery.

#great not Greta

If you are on FB or other social media look for the salad lab - US based but always interesting :) -in addition to the ones mentioned and always Ottolenghi!

It's the dressing! Proper homemade classic French.