What do you put in your salads?

[Mindy6]

I am trying to eat more fresh fruit and veg and salads are ideal for packed lunches but I am getting bored with the same old ingredients:

Tomatoes, mixed lettuce, beetroot, cucumber, sweetcorn, peas, carrots

I do add meat or sometimes fish but its the veg I need help with.

What do you put in your salad to add some interest?

Thanks

spring onion
yellow pepper

Not strictly veg, but I often have tuna, egg or olives

I just had:

white cabbage
little gem lettuce
carrot (shredded with peeler)
red onion
red pepper

thai fish sauce, lime juice, and soy sauce

prawns

celery, cucumber, red pepper, red onions. I always chuck some brie in too, and dress with balsamic vinegar. For my current chilli obsession, I've been adding chilled noodles, edamame beans and sweet chilli sauce.

Again not veg but I add some nachos for crunch and raisins can be nice too.

Cous cous, pesto (green or red) and lots of raw peppers is a good lunch box one.

Lettuce, cucumber, tomato, red and yellow peppers, goats cheese, croutons , sometimes cold roast chicken. Dressed with either low fat vinagrette or balsamic dressing.

Have been making DH salads for his lunch.
Tuna and Potato Salad with green beans -- chunks of tuna, cubed boiled potatoes, green beans in an olive oil, lemon juice, sea salt and pepper dressing. You can also add boiled eggs.
Tuna salad with brocolli florets, sweetcorn, chickpeas same dressing.
There's a nice Med Salad which is kidney beans, chickpeas, loads of parsley chopped finely and similar dressing but with lemon juice added to taste.
Roasted Vegetable Salad is very filling and yummy. A salsa verde goes well.

ten ton of mayonnaise

Avocado, red or yellow pepper (not green though), radishes...

Hard boiled eggs, roast ham, parma ham, chorizo...

Feta, mint, broad bean, cucumber and spinach leaves if I have any.

Green beans, grapefruit segments, hazelnuts dressed with honey, and soy sauce.

Roasted peppers, aubergine, courgette, onion, olives, chilled and topped with large dollop of houmous.

Wow, thank you some great ideas here, Serin what do you do with the aubergine, are you roasting with the peppers and courgette etc? Sorry I am no cook but I am willing to to learn recipes/tastes.

Bit embarassed to say but what exactly is houmous?

Serin's roasted veggies are a treat. I roast mine (not the olives though) and also top with either the salsa verde or some houmous. Yummy!
Houmous (in my house) is sesame seed paste (tahini) with chickepeas, lemon juice, salt and pepper and sometimes parsley and garlic.
You can buy houmous ready made in any supermarket too -- great with warm pitta bread :)

Roast veg (courgette, peppers, onion) with couscous and pesto dressing
Lettuce with smoked mackerel and new potato
Lettuce with feta, gherkin and sun dried tomato

Chopped up apple or pear and little cubes of cheese. Toasted walnuts or cashews (not veg but very good for you!). Cooked and cooled asparagus or green beans. There is hardly anything that isn't nice in a salad in my opinion.

red cabbage - mmmmmmmm (I never eat it cooked anymore).

Vacuum packed chestnuts can be very nice. I like to throw in herbs, basil or coriander jazz things up a bit. Oven baked broccoli is really nice (lots of recipes on google) there is a lovely website with salad/healthy ideas called 101 cookbooks. Peas are nice, and peashoots when you can get them. Also oven roasted veg make a nice change (pepper, mushroom, red onion and courgette in our house) and of you add some feta for the last 10-15 minutes it goes a bit crispy/melty.

My standard green salad is:
Lettuce (little gem, oak leaf, Batavia or romaine - something with crunch)
Cucumber
Salad onions
Ripe avocado, cubed
Feta cheese
Fresh dill or chives or even mint
Nuts (pine nuts, walnuts and pecans are favourites)

Dressing of grain mustard, olive oil, balsamic vinegar and a pinch of sea salt- lovely to add some pumpkin seed oil or walnut oil if you have it on hand.

White bean salads are great too, can add any deli-type stuff like roasted peppers/artichokes/olives/capers, I warm beans through in their canning liquid, drain and do a pesto dressing while still warm - dsp of pesto and small tsp wine vinegar and olive oil. Or you could add tuna and green beans and tomatoes to go Italian.

Make sure you get good tomatoes... Not supermarket 'salad tomatoes'

To your usual, I'd add chickpeas and red beans, plus some grated cheese.

Bean salad is nice on occasion (chickpeas, red beans, and green beans, in a vinagarette)

I had a fab salad at Zizzi's which I now often do at home, which is:
lettuce
beetroot (natural not pickled)
asparagus
artichoke hearts
pumpkin seeds
mozzarella or ricotta
lemon/olive oil dressing

For a main meal, add grilled chicken but it's nice as it is

I like grapes in a salad. Everything else has been mentioned already (plus some delicious ideas that I've made a note of)