Looking for nice salad recipes

[hermionegrange]

Me and DH are on a bit of a health kick and have been having lots of salads. Getting fed up of the usual lettuce, tomato, carrot and cucumber now. What is your favourite salad? We will be having it with meat off the BBQ later

We love black bean salad, (black beans, sweetcorn, tomato, red pepper, avocado with a lime juice/zest, olive oil, chilli and garlic dressing),
Little gem, chargrilled broccoli, radish and feta with a lemon vinaigrette
Greek salad
Grated carrot and finely sliced red cabbage with lime juice squeezed over
Beetroot and green lentils with a mustard vinaigrette

This is lovely and most unusual
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/green-beans-mushrooms-tangy-soy-dressing

This Watermelon and Feta salad is very nice.

Or This Watermelon, green bean and halloumi salad is also lovely.

I like a bed of carrot and cucumber with finely chopped red onion, sweet potato and cauliflower sprinkled with nigella seeds and roasted, and a mint and yoghurt dressing.

Sometimes depends on how things are chopped :)

DH made a lovely salad with spinach, rocket, onion, m cucumber and finely sliced radish on the mandolin. It was lovely!!! Olive oil, balsamic vinegar

All of these sound so lovely!! I have nothing useful to add though

This one is our favourite - except i roast red onions, peppers & sometimes sweet potato too! (Saved cleaning griddle pan)
www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/summer-couscous-salad

Diced and butternut squash tossed in olive oil and cumin then roasted. Mix with a tin of chickpeas and a french dressing.

Rocket with Parmesan shavings (I use the potato peeler for this), drizzled with balsamic glaze

Once you get a handle on the salad matrix you will be able to make anything into a salad! See pic attached - this is from Samin Nosrat's "Salt Fat Acid Heat". Basically any salad needs the first three things, something savoury (umami) and some crunch. The matrix has four popular salads and how they break down.

So whenever you build a salad, make sure you have something for each element of salt, fat, acid, crunch and umami and you will have a great salad!!

Avocado salads have their own special matrix in the book as they are so tasty...

My own favourite salad that I make all the time is lettuce and cucumber for crunch, feta for salt, olive oil and avocado for fat, lemon juice and a sprinkle of sumac for acid, and pine nuts (or walnuts, pistachios, or pecans) and dill for umami.

I used to love the Marks prawn cocktail salads so i recreate those. Pasta, cucumber, lettuce, tomato, grated carrot, sweetcorn, dressing, prawns and cocktail sauce

I LOVE salads. If there is a family occasion I always get asked to make a few as I'm such an enthusiast 🤣

I think the key things are mixing everything well, having a balance of food types and the seasoning of the Base elements.

For example if i make a "Greek" style salad. I chop tomatoes and then season with plenty of good salt, black pepper and oregano. I stir quite hard to get the juices going. I don't tend to add salt again as the feta cheese crumbled in is salty. Add thin green peppers, peeled cucumber and olives. I don't like onion but lots add this.

I love baking ciabatta or slightly stale bread and making a panzanella style salad with it tossed in.

Watermelon and feta is great in a salad.

Good mozzarella, tomatoes and basil is always amazing.

Or sometimes I do a "Mexican" style with avocado, corn, black beans, spring onions, tomatoes and loads of lime.

Baked squash works well in a salad too.

So many options 🤣🤣

Totally different thing but, sometimes going Really simple works for me. One of my favourites is what my Mum called Schmecky Cucumber.

Peel and then really thinly slice the cucumber, use a mandolin if you have one but that thin. Add salt and pepper then The dressing is a ratio 1 vinegar to 2 water. You can do it with tomatoes too and if I do I add a pinch of sugar. Very refreshing, clean salad. It’s probably pickling now I think about it.

If it’s really hot I do the water as an ice cube to keep it really cold.

Also like (Cooked beetroot with any dark green leaves, crumbled feta and pine nuts. Toss with olive oil and balsamic. Partic useful as apart from the leaves you can make it all from fridgey/store cupboard. Also a good winter salad.

Lots of yummy ideas here. My mum does a delicious salad with thinly sliced fennel, watercress and segments of orange. The dressing is juice of orange, olive oil and either Dijon or whole grain mustard. She sometimes sticks in some thyme or some toasted seeds or pine nuts on top.