Salad and British people….

[CurlewKate]

Do British people generally only eat salad in a heatwave? Asking because I went shopping yesterday and found empty shelves. I feel I should get special access to lettuce because I eat it and serve it all year round. All you fair weather Romaine lovers-reveal yourselves!

Morrisons is brilliant. Our store is really good, I particularly rate the “cheap cuts” meat section and the fishmonger bit. Vg fresh bread stuff, and their “non typical uk foods” selection is massive. They are pretty poor for high end meat options though - so I get those elsewhere.

I think people are snobbish about it because it’s a northern supermarket perhaps? For which I was v grateful years ago when I couldn’t find Parkin ANYWHERE around bonfire night, bakeries / Sainsbury’s etc looked at me funny and had no idea what I was talking about. Only morrisons had any in!

I’ve actually found meat in Morrisons ok, but I tend to buy the regular pre-packaged stuff. I don’t go there often as it’s not as accessible as the other supermarkets round here but honestly couldn’t fault it either.

Years ago I had horrendous genuine food poisoning from a Morrisons pick your own salad bar and your post validates my decision 😫

We have salad all year round. Lots of side salads in the winter. This w/e 33° forecast here, salad and cold meat/cheese all the way. Stocked up on artichoke hearts, sundries toms and olives to go with!

We eat salad all round but prefer spinach or rocket to lettuce.
We are having halloumi and watermelon salad tonight for dinner.

I've got feta and watermelon salad on the menu for tonight!

No I agree, the meat is great, but I’ve found they (my one at least) doesn’t tend to sell much free range chicken, organic chicken etc - the shelves are all “chicken”. But they have excellent beef oxtail, beef shin etc, “cheap” cuts that work brilliantly with slower cooking.

For lunch year round, for dinner seasonally

I can top that.

My grandmother refused to have granulated sugar (only had lumps at her house) or sugar out of a bowl. She'd sat in a cafe once when somebody had flopped their tit out, nipple into the sugar then breastfed their baby...

Well, that's what she told us. And I won't use 'public sugar' in a bow or container* 🤣

*Don't stir your drink with the sugar spoon or dip your wet spoon into the sugar you fucking cretin.

Hearing these stories I feel quite vindicated about how picky I am when eating out 😂 tbf I’m with your gran - I wouldn’t take “public sugar” from a bowl either.

Please don’t say “flopped their tit out”.

Salad is only in season in the UK in the summer, so that's when we historically ate it. It's now available all year, but I think the habit remains and cold food in the winter just seems wrong, apart from a small side salad with a steak or something.

@dogcatkitten - this is a fair explanation that I had not considered. I grew up in a hot country, and have carried those eating habits with me to a cold country, hence salad all year round.

I eat salad all year round too. I'll sometimes have grilled chicken with salad for breakfast and I'll have lettuce with Christmas dinner too. My favourite is butterhead lettuce (mild and creamy tasting).

I definitely think a lot of English people only eat salad in Summer. As other posters have said it makes sense that historically it was seasonal, and many English people have an aversion to hot food in hot weather. And the typical salad will definitely include some or all of: iceberg, beetroot, a pork pie, ham, grated cheese and vinegary coleslaw!

Salad doesn't have to be cold! I eat lots of warm salads. Roasted veg, warm pulses, hot dressings, melted cheese and fried morsels of things. Salad is a big term in our house. We eat them most days. I find the key is to not make them low calorie/fat.

Yeah I can't eat Morrisons salad counter since I saw a woman lick her fingers and then touch everything and stick her hands right in the pasta 🤢. Loved a Morrisons salad box as well.

But back to the op, a side salad all year round but as a main meal only in the summer. In the winter I generally want something hot and filling.

I was on another thread about the price of albacore tuna and someone mentioned a recipe which included this tuna with jarred butter beans, parsley, red onion.

Here is my version - great for a hot day!

Tuna and butter bean salad

We eat pretty much the same food all year round regardless of the temperature. Might eat slightly more soups and stews in winter but would not eat them in summer. We eat salad all year round.

Please don't say "please don't say".

I’ll use stronger words next time someone uses horrid misogynist language then. I didn’t-because I thought this was a gentle, mildly amusing thread about salad.

I agree that was a nasty comment and you were right to call it out.

Yep! Lettuce, tomatoes (whole), cabbage used for coleslaw, carrots, pretty much everything gets dunked in a vat of diluted Milton. It's safe to use, but it just seems awful, like putting Dettol on it 😖