Your three or four best salads, please

[Abeona]

I've been tasked with taking at least four salads to an evening event in mid-June where there will be a raclette grill for everyone to make their own combo of sliced steak/cheese/potato/ham/gherkin/onion and whatever. Around 20 people expected, including Dutch, Belgian and Germans who may have their own ideas about salad...

I'm thinking a good green salad (lettuce, watercress, spinach, perhaps some avocado) with a classic vinaigrette is a must-have.

Wondered about a nice tangy beetroot-based salad to cut through the cheese.

Pasta salad to offer some carbs, perhaps? What's your best one?

Carrot salad: John Torode does a nice one with mint, ginger and coriander.

Lentil salad: lots of lentils with loads of veg and herbs chopped fine and a dressing.

Potato salad? There will be potatoes offered with the raclette but when I think Dutch, German and Belgian I think potato salad...

At the risk of sounding stingy, I need to keep costs fairly low. I've been told to spend no more than £30 on salads, and while I can provide lettuce and spinach and chives and possibly spring onions from my own garden, things like tomato salad are just going to be too expensive to provide for 20 people. Even buying beetroot will be pushing it...

For 20 people, (not all of whom will like it anyway): Aldi mozzarella, 69p for a 200g packet (drained weight 125g) x 3 packets Aldi salad tomatoes, 95p for 6 x 2 packets Aldi cut basil leaves, 52p

£4.49
Without basil leaves = £3.97

I think that's pretty cheap for a salad! Leaves you £25.51 for your other salads.

Also, event's the middle of June - cucumbers are one of the cheapest bulky salad ingredients in the summer so I doubt they'll be 89p. Tomatoes will also be much cheaper.

For potato salad I really like a variation on Polish salad - it's basically cubed, boiled potatoes and carrots, finely chopped onions, chopped gherkins and sliced boiled eggs in a mustard and mayo dressing. I have had similar in both Germany and Holland so may go down well with your guests?

Then I also really enjoy sauerkraut salad - just sauerkraut, grated apple, grated carrot and sliced onion but no idea if that'd be generally popular! Maybe just coleslaw instead...

I'd then do a big leafy salad with a balsamic vinigarette as you suggested but add some tomatoes rather than avocados to keep costs down.

And either rice or pasta salad with plenty of veg.

Agree, I love a potato salad, plus a 'slaw'-type salad will appeal to northern Europeans, plus I also love Waldorf salad (wonky apples are q. cheap, as are celery sticks, raisins).
Do you have to consider food allergies?

I've had raclette lots of times over the years and because you use potato with meats and cheeses I wouldn't be too keen on potato salad. Raclette is lovely but very rich and heavy as a meal so I'd want lighter fresher salads personally. A green salad, coleslaw and a tomato salad if you can get the tommies cheap enough.

Good luck and hope it's a lovely event.

I'd go Greek but not a that budget.

Endive / chicory or a really simple rocket salad to cut through the richness of the raclette

What about cowboy caviar or succotash or some other kind of bean salad? Beans are cheap and filling and so is sweetcorn.

For potato salad dressing I use equal parts mayo, evoo and red wine vinegar, vigorously shaken together. It goes really far, is cost effective and has the tang that salad cream would give.

https://www.travelsfrommykitchen.com/post/moro-chickpea-salad This is my favourite

Drain 2 cans of chick peas and roast in oven with cumin and some chilli. Delicious on top of any salad to liven it up a bit.

This Thai coleslaw is completely delicious and cheap

https://www.cookingclassy.com/thai-slaw-peanut-dressing/

Do you have condiments that you can use to make the dressings or are you happy to buy things like that and only charge for what is needed because you will use them up yourself? Otherwise your budget will get eaten up pretty quickly buying dressing ingredients…

£1.50 per person is not a lot. Keep it simple with a cheap salad base (green leaves, potato, pasta, cabbage) and a few expensive fancy garnishes.

I would use whatever green leaves you have in your garden to make a huge green salad (at least twice as much as the other salads). Cost £0. If you want to keep the cost at £0 (apart from the dressing), you could use chargrilled spring onions as a garnish or freeze any odd bits of stale bread you have leftover or pick up a very cheap reduced loaf from the supermarket to make homemade croutons. Radishes work well with the chargrilled spring onions and give a splash of colour. A classic vinaigrette or honey mustard dressing would go well with the raclette. If the budget allows, a packet of walnut pieces would make a nice garnish. Alternatively, a sweet white balsamic dressing with orange pieces makes a refreshing summer salad. Or you could do both dressings/garnishes for variety. Honey roast cherry tomatoes and/or crispy deep fried onions also make good garnishes (you only need a few, even though they are expensive).

Your carrot salad sounds like a great cheap option. It sounds like you are a gardener, you could split up pot of coriander and mint to grow on now to save money.

A pasta or potato salad with your homegrown chives or spring onions is another cheap option and is an alternative if people can’t be bothered to wait their turn at the raclette machine 😂 A green bean, olive and potato salad makes a nice change (kind of salad Nicoise without the protein). The honey roast tomatoes I suggested work well in a pasta salad.

You would probably have about a tenner left for a fancier salad if you don’t need to buy the dressing ingredients, depending on which garnishes you go for.

If not, red cabbage and apple slaw looks pretty and is cheap.

Okay, let's run the maths: five packs of cooked beetroot, do you reckon, in order that 20 people can have a portion? 5x 59p: Let's call it £3. Plus rocket: two bags? £2 say. Let's go for the cheapest feta-style cheese available: 90p, say. The packs looks small. Three, do you you think? £2.70. Walnuts: I'll have to buy a bag of them. Aldi seems to do a pack for £1.60 though currently out of stock. Balsamic glaze: Aldi don't seem to sell it but Sainsbury's have it at £1.95. So that would be a lovely salad that might stretch to 20 small portions for £11.25.

Watermelon salad: one large watermelon would be enough, I imagine. Difficult to price because of seasonal variations: anywhere between £2.70 - £3.50 at the moment. Halloumi: three blocks, do you reckon? £2.15 per block: £6.45. Aldi has 60g pine nuts at £1.55. Would one be enough? Let's assume so: add £1.55. Green beans: £1.29 per pack: 2 packs? That comes to £13.28 without a dressing. If that dressing involves the olive oil at £9 a bottle I used at home, we're probably talking about another £1. Not that I'd actually charge for something I already have on the shelf.

So, £24.50-ish. Not sure either of them will allow 20 people to have a generous serving if they really like them. They sound delicious salads and I'll try them at some point. They both have cheese in, though, and there's a lot of cheese in the raclette — so probably not both ideal for this event.

I like this one

https://www.gordonramsay.com/gr/recipes/quinoa-salad/amp

Yes, I do something like that pretty regularly: I use Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's recipe. Unfortunately I don't think the toasted sesame oil and soy flavours are likely to sit well with the raclette, but I'd urge people to try it: delicious.

This is really good and given there will be ham in he raclette I'd leave out the bacon - might sub with very finely sliced red onion for the colour contrast. Although it does have tomatoes its not a lot (3 tomatoes to 2 large heads of broccoli) and you said you'd have chives. It uses the stalks as well as the heads of the broccoli so it is pretty inexpensive. https://www.jamieoliver.com/recipes/vegetables-recipes/broccoli-salad/

You're being over cautious with your budget and quantities, OP.

Some people won't touch any salad. Others will have one or two based on their preferences. Very few people will have a full portion of all four.

For example, if you did a couple of the more extravagant ones I previously suggested, a £4-5 pack of chicken thighs would be enough mixed with all the other cheaper ingredients.
You can get a decent bag of walnuts for £2-3. A large pack of mushrooms at Tesco is two quid. And you'd only need two max to make a huge mushroom salad.
It's perfectly doable to make enough salad for 20 people on a £30 budget, so don't panic.

I have four -

Massive
Extra Large
Large
Medium.

😂

That broccoli salad does look good. Do you think it would be any good without the bacon? Can't help thinking the bacon makes it! Will try at home this week with and without and let you know.

I have Raclette a lot and it’s rich.

Fattoush is cheap and refreshing. Radishes are cheap and the fresh flavours would work.

https://feelgoodfoodie.net/recipe/lebanese-fattoush-salad/

Coleslaw

Veg heavy pasta salad. Broccoli is cheap. Feta is crumbled so don’t use much.
https://www.budgetbytes.com/sweep-the-kitchen-pasta-salad/

Beetroot bulked with cous cous, again go easy on the feta.

https://realfood.tesco.com/recipes/beetroot-chickpea-and-feta-salad.html

This pasta salad looks so good
https://www.spendwithpennies.com/summer-pasta-salad/

Greek salad
potato salad
chick pea salad
kale salad
cus cus roasted veg topped with balsamic glaze

I quite often make a sweetcorn salsa type thing - you can do it with frozen sweetcorn to keep costs down plus either spring onion or red onion and red pepper (roasted is nice but not essential) with lime juice. Sometimes add chilli and/or chopped coriander. Reckon you could do it for under a fiver although not sure it’s quite the right vibe.

Each salad need only serve 6-8 people, not 20.

Buy cheapest ( tasteless) tomatoes, slice removing nasty bit. Add tsp soy sauce, tsp sugar, sufficient olive oil to cover the lot, couple of raw chilis and a tsp vinegar. Taste the dressing and when the combination is right ( sweet,sour,spicy,salt and unami) leave the toms to soak for a couple of hours. Tasteless becomes tasty and cheap.