"Massive salad"

[Sparklfairy]

I see it here all the time, it's the new mythical mumsnet chicken I think. In the recent lovely (and not so lovely) weather I've been eating a lot of salad, but I really want to know what other people think is a 'massive salad'.

So, AIBU to ask when you make a massive salad what you put in it and how much??

nosy

maybe a while little Gen lurtyucrvof hskd

Sounds delicious.

'Massive salad' is my default Summer dinner. My basic salad is lambs lettuce, rocket, tomatoes, those big, red spring onions, cucumber, sun-dried tomatoes, mushroom antipasti, avocado, artichoke, olives, a dollop of hummus, sweet peppers, boiled eggs, an oil and vinegar dressing, usually balsamic. Then add cheese, fish or sliced meat and sprinkle on some crutons. I sometimes add some homemade potato salad or a bean salad.

Entire salad bag
Half a cucumber
Whole avocado
About 10 cherry tomatoes
1/2 pot of lidl chilli and garlic olives
Small tin sweetcorn
Big splash of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, honey and a bit of salt.

It is a BIG salad! I love those fancy salads they sell with nuts, grains, and sun dried tomatoes but have never been able to organise myself enough to make one.

My "massive salad" is most of a dinner plate full of mixed leaves with:

6-8 cherry tomatoes
A few radishes
Sliced spring onion
Some shredded beetroot (not the pickled stuff, I hate that!)
Diced cucumber
Sometimes those sprouted seeds
French dressing
Then for the protein, either some chicken, fish, or Quorn. It's one of my favourite meals.

maybe a while little Gen lurtyucrvof hskd an iceberg

Omg, I do exactly the same!

Never mind the salads. This thread is bringing out the MN obsession with crusty bread! Does no one here ever eat their salad or soup with ciabatta or a soft bap? Or (god forbid) a slice of soft and not crusty bread from a supermarket loaf?

I’m not much of a fan of salad, so none of my salads are massive, but yesterday I made one with very finely sliced raw fennel, watercress and black grapes in a vinaigrette dressing.
I had it with some Italian cured meat which was quite fatty, and the sharp taste of the salad was a good contrast to the sweet fatty ham.

@fatoaf

Got to be honest, I make some mega salads. It's all about the colour and the dressing for me

Spinach leaves, chicken, peppers, black olives, cucumber, sweetcorn. I make a yogurt dressing using fat free yogurt, a bit of garlic powder, bit of tomato purée, some paprika, some cayenne and some cumin. Sometimes I add chopped chives too.

I don't know if it would qualify as a "massive" salad, although it was a very adequate lunch, but I had a lovely roast pumpkin and feta cheese salad recently.

Base of baby spinach, watercress and mixed leaves (rocket, lollo rosso/blanco, coriander) with roasted pumpkin lumps, feta cheese, balsamic vinegar dressing and toasted pine nuts - bloody lovely! To make it bigger, you could add black olives, and possibly some lightly cooked baby mushrooms.

White (aka Russian) salad. Not the healthy type And you don't make just "a little" of it...

@FatOaf

maybe a while little Gen lurtyucrvof hskd

Sounds delicious.

😂 @BikeRunSki, what is this exotic "lurtyucrvof hskd" you speak of? 😁😉

@msbevvy

We like to add sliced strawberries to a salad. We first had this in a restaurant in Holland.

Oh yes! I don't add strawberries, but have used watermelon cubes in salad before, which I first had at a French restaurant! really nice addition.

Lettuce, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado, toasted seeds/nuts, grated parmesan, dressing.

Ok, it’s not “massive” and I do eat bread/cheese with it, but it is delicious so I eat a lot of it!

I find salads quite boring so mine aren't usually that massive. But the things which raise it to being a pleasure to eat for me are:

• pomegranate seeds
• nuts or seeds
• sesame oil as a dressing

And of course, some interesting protein - halloumi, hummus, cheese, prawns, whatever.
An ex of mine used to have a plate of leaves with chopped up sausage and grated cheddar. It was actually pretty lush.

a salad is a salad until leaves are involved then it becomes massive.

(Love Russian salad, @CatsArePeople .... my favourite)

I'm happy to eat a nice salad, but I can't imagine ever describing it as 'one of my favourite meals' ... no doubt that's why I am a couple of stone over weight .

And yes, the obsession with 'crusty bread', I suppose it's a show off sort of way of making sure everyone knows your bread is special .

The 'massive' bit is what makes me roll my eyes - not on this thread, but on a thread where the competitive undereaters are out in force being disingenuous about how little much they eat, and feigning disbelief that anybody could ever manage to force down more than a cubic inch of pizza without feeling absolutely stuffed and becoming obese. They like to exclaim that they love their food as much as anybody and the proof is that every day they have a MASSIVE salad, but we all know what they mean is not the delicious mixed salads being described here - they munch their way through a bag of leaves with no dressing, possibly a small piece of plainly cooked low-fat protein on the side, fretting if they add as much as a couple of carrot sticks for a little treat.

In those contexts it's a huge red flag for disordered eating.

“You have a salad? Well it’s like that but bigger” Seinfeld

A big salad has what we call ‘bits’ avocado, boiled egg, chicken/fish, tofu, grains etc.

What's the 'Mumsnet chicken'??

A mythical, magical bird that can feed the 5,000 on one carcass...

A mythical beast, @wellthatsokthen - it can feed a family of six on Sunday with all the usual accompaniments (i.e. they each get a sliver of breast and fill up with vegetables and Yorkshire puddings), then give them three or four other full meals on succeeding days - e.g. curry, chicken salad/sandwiches, chicken pie, risotto or savoury rice with the scraps, soup made with stock from boiling up the carcass.

On any thread about a Mumsnet chicken, there's a Red Sea parting of posters between those who make one chicken last a month using the above tactics and those who need two chickens for a roast dinner for two people and throw the lefotvers in the bin.

Many moons ago when I was 17 and in my first job, one of the perks was a free meal at lunch time. There was also a salad bar. There was one lady who was always on a diet, she never lost weight despite being a runner, she said she didnt understand as only ate the salad, I remember looking at her plate and she basically had a mountain of mayonaise, sweetcorn, bacon Crunchies, cheese, ham etc and maybe a tomato ans a lettuce leaf. I am 56 now and can still remember wondering if she seriously thought just because it came from the salad bar it was healthy. Another colleague always had soup, with a blob of mash in it and a desert. She was very slim, and I thought hers seemed the better option, starter and desert rathern than a massive help yourself salad :)

Its all about hitting different flavours and texture to balance it out and so its not boring.
We usually use rocket and butter head salad leaves. Half a pack of pre cooked beluga lentils. Some mango pieces. Walnuts. Parma ham. Croutons usually made with sourdough bread. Some type of cheese maybe pulled Mozzarella or grilled haloumi. Then a dressing of extra virgin olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and Pepper, lots of lemon. I think people forget about the dressing but it's integral!