Aibu to hate salads? What's your favourite dinners

[SugarnetMum]

I need more ideas. Like a lot of people I just range from probably about 10 dishes or less over and over, week in week out..

My dinners range from:
Homemade Chinese chicken satay\curry
Spaghetti bolognaise (homemade sauce)
Quesadillas
Mushroom risotto
Roast dinner
Bacon and cabbage with mash and parsley sauce and veg (my fave)
Sausages mash and bisto gravy
Seafood pie

I really struggle, fail to ever eat cold salad type dinners... I find them so unappetising.

Anyone else like that but seem to like certain types of salad?!?!?

More ideas please!

My top tip for increasing your repertoire is to have a list ... sounds obvious but we were eating the same ten things and we all together wrote a list of everything we ever have and it was more like forty things. When I do the food shop I look at the list for inspiration.

I also have a Pinterest board for interesting dinners. We're trying to have something new every week, even if it's a variation on a theme eg today's bbq pork was a substitute for our usual stir-fry. I can pin stuff whenever but it creates a useful resource for inspiration. You can search eg "summer vegetarian dinners" or similar to get particular inspiration.

The closest I've ever got to halloumi was serving it in a restaurant years ago, I'd have no idea where to even find it In the fridge in any supermarket, it's nice in wraps with sweet chilli sauce OR grilled with roasted veg cous cous this recipe is nice www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/1816/grilled-halloumi-with-spiced-couscous

Jamie Oliver's spinach, sweet potatoe and spinach curry is nice 😋 www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/sweet-potato-chickpea-amp-spinach-curry/

are you sure it is salads you don't like, or just lettuce? I really don't enjoy salads with lettuce so don't choose to eat or make them, but I eat lots of different things I would call salad ,and that includes sometimes including green leaves that aren't lettuce like watercress, baby spinach rocket etc. Have you tried different leaves. One of my favourite salads is watercress, walnuts, feta cheese cubed and a balsamic dressing.

With tomatoes try skinning them in boiling water first, I sometimes make a bread salad with stale bread (naice bread, not sliced white!) lots of chopped tomatoes, parsley and crushed garlic. Sounds weird, tastes lovely.

Cajun chicken pasta
Chilli con carne
Paprika Pork
Bacon and Mushroom pasta
Risotto
Spaghetti Bolt
Chicken/Steak Fajita
Turkey Burgers
Chicken Jambalaya
Pork fried rice/stir fry
Home made Doner Kebab
Curry
Nacho Style Feast

That dal sounds delicious! Will look into making it soon, getting so many options here thanks everyone. You could probably tell I'm Irish with the bisto gravy and bacon n cabbage

I am so thankful to the person who first posted the recipe sugar. It's really nice with a tin of chickpeas added, or served with boiled eggs, veg, chicken etc.

Lettuce is okay but not in massive quantities. Which I feel is salad...

Leafy lettuce rather than crunchy if that makes sense no?

Really easy 'salad' is roast red pepper, spinach and feta.

Chop a red pepper, coat with olive oil, roast for 15 mins.

Add a big handful of spinach. Back in oven, one minute. Remove from oven. Add half a cup crumbled feta, mix lightly. Feta will melt slightly. Add salt and pepper if you like.

You could do some baked chicken at the same time. Maybe serve with rice /potato/ cous cous.

If I put loads of fattening stuff on top of salad leaves I can eat them but really they just taste like grass. I'd rather eat a healthy meal with loads of cooked veg than a cheese and mayo salad just so I can force it down. I've tried loads but since I hate raw veg, tomatoes, cucumbers, avocado etc it just doesn't work for me.

I don't see it as a big deal.

I only like avocado in guacamole. Avocado on its own is rotten to me. But gorgeous mashed up with tomato, red onion, oil, coriander lots of salt and lemon, delicious homemade guacamole better than you could ever buy at the store!

I used to hate salad, but have recently realised just a bit of extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar and salt and pepper makes the world of difference - I'm happy to eat half a plateful of bagged leaves, tomato and cucumber (red pepper if I'm pushing the boat out) if it's got this basic dressing on - even just half a teaspoon each of oil and vinegar does the trick, it's the seasoning that's essential for me.

I eat salads all the time.

Chicken Caesar with new pots, leaves etc

Asparagus, bacon, egg, leaves

Nicoise

Some lovely sounding recipes here!

I'm not a huge fan of leafy salads but a Greek salad with halved cherry tomatoes (can't bear the big ones), deseeded chopped cucumber, finely sliced red onion, olives and balsamic dressing with feta crumbled over the top is yum.

Steak w/ new potatoes and salad
Corn on the cob with Cajun chicken and prawns with onions

Maybe try changing the salads up with more interesting ingredients thrown in:
Peppery salad ( rocket etc)
Chopped dates
Pomegranate seeds
Sunflower seeds
Avocado
Apricots ( dried)
Strawberrys and balsamic vinegar
Feta cheese
Mango

My go tos are

Chicken breast and veg (very boring)
Pasta bolognase (homemade sauce)
Pasta and homemade tomato sauce
Rice and chicken or veg curry (homemade)
Cous cous and stir fry veg
Risotto with chicken and ham or bacon
Bacon, butternut squash and sweet potato stew with green beans (a SW recipe but if you use oil instead of fry light you wouldn't know it)

I'm also not a salad fan, as I don't like fresh tomatoes

We don't like lettuce here, if any dish requires a green salad element I use spinach and shredded white cabbage.

My daughter eats a lot of chopped salad, but that's because it's easy to make enough for one half portion - I rarely do it for three. Maybe I need the OXO Gadget. The secret, I find, is to include some fruit.

Here's the only salad in my rotation: chop one smoked chicken breast, one avocado and one pear into chunks of equal size. Add some walnuts. Dress with French dressing and tip onto some salad leaves.

Typical dishes here are -

• Beef/chicken/salmon/prawn stir fry, marinade meat for 24 hours, stir fry various veg and meat/fish with noodles or rice
• salmon/harissa prawns or chicken with cous cous/bulgur/quinoa salad (roasted squash and semi sundried tomatoes and fresh herbs or other mixture of vegetables)
• fish stew (vegetables, tomato sauce and fish if your choice, I usually use cod or monkfish tail)
• Thai chicken noodle soup (slow cooker)
• sweet and sour chicken/prawns/vegetable
• Paella
• Mee goreng
• pilaf (chicken/prawns/pork/beef)
• fajitas
• masamam curry (meat or vegetable)
• duck/beef/lamb donburi
• pasta and sauce
• jacket potato with various fillings
• chilli
• spaghetti bolognese/lasagna
• shepherds pie
• fish pie
• risotto

Right this week we had :
Filet-mignon pork with hassleback potatoes + French beans

Couscous with tuna / Sweetcorn mayonnaise

Sweet and sour chicken with rice

Stir fry with the left over bavette.

I'm not keen on salad either but do like a Caesar!

Some of our regular meals are:
Nasi Goreng rice (Lidl) with Naan bread.
Sweet Chilli Salmon with sweet potato fries.
Cajun chicken, mushroom and Haloumi wraps with garlic baby potatoes.
Ham, mushroom and mozzarella puff pastry tart with new potatoes.
Also often have various types of fish with veg.

Paella!

I'm not keen on salad generally but I do love a niçoise.

Veggie stew with homemade herb dumplings
BBQ beans done in slow cooker (I do a vegan version, tho am not vegan!)
Roast sweet potato and chickpea with spices (eg cumin, coriander, done in a tomato sauce)
Veggie curry in coconut milk

No need to eat salads if you don't like them! Lots of veg are good roasted in a little oil and spice (eg paprika or cumin) ...cauliflower, broccoli, carrots, onions are good like this.

Maryshelly what do you use to do the garlic potatoes?

And also that puff pastry tart sounds delish..have puff pastry waiting to be used in the fridge

A while back I bought this book Salad Love because I wanted some differed ideas for salads for lunches.

It completely changed my ideas of what can count as a salad. What I like about it is that it gives a sort of "formula" to follow so that you can take his ideas and build on them.

Today I had baby spinach, oak smoked cheddar, plums and peanuts.
Yesterday was little gem with apple, dates and walnuts - but it was a fasting day.

We do usually have something cooked in the evening though

This is gorgeous and very easy and quick:
www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/panang_chicken_stir-fry_00869