What can I add to my boring salads to make them more enticing?

[SaladRoger]

I'm trying to get fitter and healthier and have started eating salads for lunch.

I generally stick to things like salad leaves, iceberg lettuce, cucumber, peppers, cooked chicken breast, hard boiled eggs, tomatoes, cheddar cheese and a tiny sprinkle of salad dressing.

What can I add to make it more interesting and tasty?

I'm going to try pomegranate and some sort of seeds.

Any other suggestions, preferably ones that don't cost too much.
Thanks

Finely chopped gherkin, a spoon of the gherkin water
(I don't normally like gherkins but I like difference it makes to a salad)

Olives
Again use the olive water as part of the dressing

Chopped up dried fruit - dates, apricots, sultanas
Fresh fruit- melon, grapes, apple, pear
Tinned pineapple, peaches, mandarins

Nuts, sunflower seeds

Frozen peas, sweetcorn

Falafels, amazing to soak up any sauces or dressings

Radishes, cress, fresh herbs (can grow youw own cheaply indoors on a sunny windowsill)

Butter beans

Mixed grains, most of the supermarkets have their own brand various mixed grains Italian style, french style etc

Have you tried different flavoured oils? I love garlic oil & basil oil to use as bases to add (very good quality) balsamic vinegar to. Really changes the flavour/feel of the salad. Again not a cheap change, but if you only use occasionally they last. And the garlic oil one is easy to make. Pop cloves into a bottle & leave to marinate. If you find you like the oils they become great thing to be added to a Christmas stocking. As does good balsamic vinegar.

Mine is a kitchen sink salad, everything but the sink goes into it.
Baby leaf lettuce, red onions, fresh beets, not the pickled ones, some nuts, kidney beans, corn, grated carrots, peppers, cucumbers, tomatoes, Avocados, goats cheese, ham, chicken, salmon are the added proteins. Whichever you you like on the day.

I do a fab apple, pear and goats cheese salad with pomegranate seeds and nuts. Make your own mayo for this one and omg you are in heaven. You soak the apple and pears in lemon juice to prevent browning. Then add salad leaves to a plate as well as the fruit, goats cheese crumbled, decorate with pomegranate seeds and serve with the mayo. To die for

Are you making your own dressing?
If so, use different types of dressing for different salads.

Don't just throw everything together... have a theme like the classic Tomato & Mozzarella salad with Basil & Water cress. Obviously with balsamic vinegar dressing. Serve with seeded bread & butter
Do a cucumber salad with a yoghurt & dill dressing and have a bit of chicken or salmon & crusty bread with it.

Really the possibilities are endless!

Try virgin olive oil 5 parts to one part balsamic vinegar or lemon juice. Add fresh chopped parsley, oregano, salt, pepper. Pinch of ground cumin too if you like it.
Pour over salad of your choice and dunk fresh crusty bread/ baguette as accompaniment

I think the key to interesting salads is to think of them as a meal rather than a composition. If you were making a stir fry you'd think about how things combined. So do the same with a salad. eg shredded cabbage, grated carrot, shredded chicken, sliced peppers dressed with soy and sprinkled with sesame seeds. Also learn how to make quick pickles - eg quick pickled radish with melon parma ham and rocket is delicious.

A bag of mixed seeds from LIdl. Chuck a load of them on. Gives it crunch and interest.

Different dressings: Dijon mustard, Balsamic, Asian (ginger, soy, honey + rice vinegar), garlic mayo with ACV, pesto with mayo, Caesar with anchovies - experiment!

Herbs: parsley, mint, dill

Seeds/nuts (as is, toasted or caramelised)

Legumes: chickpeas, all kinds of beans or lentils

Vegetables: finely sliced carrots, cabbage, steamed broccoli, mange-tout, sweetcorn, beetroot, asparagus, artichoke, anything else you fancy…

Cheese: any really, including feta and goat cheese

Protein: chicken, steak, salmon, tuna, prawns, grilled/baked tofu, bacon, boiled eggs

I make a lot of salads for lunch. Salads come alive when you think in terms of the 5 basic flavours (salty/ sour/ sweet/ bitter/ umani) and texture (especially crispiness) and try to include as many as possible of those. I find salty, sour and crispy are the bare minimum. Salt and sour are easily added by using salt and vinegar or lemon juice in a dressing, but a salt flavour can of course also be achieved by adding feta cheese or meats. Crispy foods include carrots, cabbage, seeds and nuts, onions, croutons, sweet peppers…
salads lacking something crispy, salt and sour feel very bland.
also, always add freshly ground black pepper.

Ditch the iceberg and use spinach as the base. Much tastier and more nutritious.

Spring onions are great. And sweetcorn. Sundried tomatoes. Or pepperdew peppers (tiny ones you buy in a jar.

I hate cucumber so I go with raw Courgette as an alternative.

Take your dressing separately so it doesn't go all limp. I like something simple like olive oil and lemon or lime juice with a bit of seasoning.

Oh, and some fresh herbs - basil or coriander depending on which direction you are going in

Tinned potatoes: keep their shape better than "fresh"!

Yes, couscous is wheat but the OP hasn’t asked for wheat free suggestions so I thought she might like to try it on her salad. I like the Moroccan fresh couscous from Sainsbury’s, it’s full of chickpeas and sultanas. It’s not low calorie but a small amount goes a long way as it’s got a great punchy flavour. I eat it as part of my calorie controlled diet and it’s helped make my salads more tasty.

Capers, borlotti beans, butter beans, chickpeas, salt, onion, different varieties of tomatoes, lemon juice, red wine vinegar.**

Salad cheese
Sweetcorn
Gherkins
Peas
Olives
Grated onion
Croutons

Swap salad leaves for Chinese leaf.

We have 2 salads for lunch today

One is burrata with black olives, tomatoes, olive oil, thyme

The second is chickpeas, capers, red onion, red pepper, green pepper, some red pepper paste/pate thing out of a jar. Olive oil from a jar of sundried tomatoes

Green olives on the side

Kiwi on the side

Couscous and quinoa can be used as alternatives to burghul in tabbouleh, which is an absolutely delicious salad. These days I always use quinoa, not only because it is the healthiest of the three, but I also find it the tastiest.

My favourite salad was one I ate while mystery shopping, thought it was a weird combo but it's actually amazing

Lettuce, cucumber (chopped small), red peppers, blue cheese (any nice cheese works), grilled chicken, grilled pear (though works not grilled as well), some crushed peanuts and raspberry balsamic dressing (which is basically just some balsamic with raspberries in it & works nearly as well with some raspberries and just balsamic dressing).

I've found since then that adding pear, raspberry or apple to salads can really make them nicer.

Tinned peaches. Didn't think it would work but the nicest salad I had was lettuce, tomato, onions, cucumber etc with chicken, tinned peaches and chia seeds.