Tell me your main course salad recipes, please

[ElusiveMoose]

My new year's resolution was to increase my vegetable intake, so to this end we've had some salads for dinner in the last couple of weeks. To my utter astonishment surprise DH has raved on about how nice they were, and demanded more.

Trouble is, all my recipes for salads are a) too 'light' (we're quite hearty eaters, so three prawns and an artfully arranged lettuce leaf won't cut it), b) too fiddly (take 63 different items and griddle them all individually), or c) too expensive (marinated fillet steak served with 17 different Asian leaves).

So, can you give me ideas for main course salads that are filling, relatively straightforward and not crazily expensive? (BTW, our successes so far have been a potato/broccoli/smoked mackerel combo, an American cobb salad with sour cream dressing, and a broccoli, butter bean and feta creation, which sounds grim but was actually really nice.)

I love this..

lettuce, tomato, cucumber, red onion, sweetcorn, hot bacon, hot chicken, cheese drizzled with bbq sauce

i've been known to add some baked new pots too

yummy

insert comma after cheese

Jamie Oliver does a lovely one with Jerusalem artichokes and streaky bacon in one of his Naked Chef books (there's a similar recipe of his online but not quite the same.)

From memory you parboil the Jerusalem artichokes (no need to peel) then slice them. Fry the streaky bacon (2 rashers each) until crispy then remove from the pan and fry the artichokes (adding some olive oil). Eat with mixed leaves (Waitrose organic winter salad is nice) + Jamie gives a recipe for a good vinaigrette that goes with it.

Sorry to be a bit vague!

Oh and possibly also pinenuts too

Jamie has some good ones, I like this one best

Or that 80's classic - bacon and egg salad, Nigella has one in her new book

I like goats cheese and croutons in salad, they fill it out, also don't forget nuts and seeds to add dimension and of course a good sharp dressing.

I love making big "meal-sized" salads.

Here are some of my favourites:

Baby spinach, puy or green lentils (I use the ready-prepared ones out of a tin), pan-fried (or not, if you can't be bothered) strips of smoked salmon. Vinaigrette with lemon, chives and/or dill. Lovely and filling.

Salad niçoise - tuna (fresh or tinned), green beans, potatoes, tomatoes, lettuce, olives and anchovies. Nice mustardy vinaigrette.

Salade lyonnaise - lettuce (also nice with baby spinach leaves), fried bacon lardons, chunky croutons and a poached egg on top. Mustardy vinaigrette. You cut into the egg and it drizzles down and mixes in with the dressing on the leaves.

Chickpeas, tomatoes, tuna, red onion and parsley with lemony dressing.

And of course the classic Caesar salad with grilled chicken. Lots of recipes for that online.

And I agree that goat's cheese is a great addition to salads - I like the way they do it in France, when they put the goat's cheese on toast and grill it before adding to the salad.

Oh, and lentils or chickpeas with tomato, cucumber and feta cheese is lovely too.

Was just about to suggest Jamie Oliver, but I see others already have! If you want something filling, his cous cous with loads of herbs and roasted veg is lovely

Have to agree with taffeta, the warm butternut squash one is divine.

Thanks so much for all your suggestions. Will try all of these, plus revisit my Jamie books (lifeintheslowlane I was amused that you couldn't bring yourself to write 'loadsa' ).

(Incidentally, given that you're all Jamie fans, has anyone made his gratin of jerusalem artichokes? I made it the other day, and found that by the time the artichokes were tender, all the cream had dried up/soaked in, so it was oily rather than creamy. Anyone else tried it?)

Leaves of any description, fried red onions, fried pancetta slices, toasted pine nuts, shavings of parmesan and olive oil and balsamic vinegar liberally splashed over the top. YUM!

Leaves, hard boiled egg quartered, walnuts, ting pieces of raw cauliflower, goats cheese and a dressing of choice.

Small circles of goats cheese wrapped in a piece of parma ham, gently fried off until crispy over leaves and tomatoes with a dressing of choice.

Not-too-cooked broccoli, grated carrot, grated beetroot, crumbled goats cheese, vinagrette. Yummy.

I'd recommend the Ottolenghi book, and the Smitten Kitchen food blog.. lots of lovely recipes.

Dressed leaves scattered with roasted squash, feta, red onion and olives. Yum

Leaves with crumbled blue cheese and caramalised walnuts (just toss in a non stick frying pan with a spoonful of sugar until the sugar melts and all goes sticky and brown). Dress with olive oil and a drizzle of balsamic. Nice crusty bread.

Hmm, all you people suggesting roasted squash, what size/shape lumps do you cut it into for your various salads? Love roasted squash but perpetually get it just wrong...

cage - I halve it, still in its skin, make cross hatch slits in it, then drizzle with olive oil and season, then roast in a hot oven for 45 mins to an hour. Then you can scoop out balls or cut up into chunks.

Don't roast in individual chunks as this dries it out.

And then just chuck it in above scrummy salads? Thank you - will try immediately the veg box fairies bring me another butternut.

Did a lovely one last week - brie, chicken and bacon salad.

Saute some sliced chicken and some bacon lardons in a frying pan, put onto salad leaves and chopped spring onions.

Then heat a couple of tablespoons of olive oil, fry a couple of finely chopped shallots til soft, then melt in a big chunk of de-rinded brie. Add a spoonful of dijon mustard and some white wine vinegar to taste - pour hot cheesy dressing over salad. Verrrry tasty.

cage - yes, then its good for salads, but warm rather than molten hot otherwise it wilts all the leaves.....

Well, Annie, funny you should say that.....

I'm low-carbing at the moment, and eating salads like that has lost me a stone and a half since the summer! It's the way to go....