How to make a delicious salad

Here are some tips on how to make a delicious Salad. I’ve also included an example of a couple of salads I’ve made using the tips below.

The key for any good salad is to layer the salad with flavours and textures and if you try and hit the below main areas, it will take an average, lettuce heavy, dish to a delicious and complex accompaniment that will stand up the strong flavours on the BBQ for example.

Creamy/fatty – this is usually in the form of a dressing, but it could be avocado too. Cheese can also help here.

Bitter – usually some fresh rocket leaves or kale helps here, you don’t need too much of this.

Sharp – a squeeze of lemon or lime juice, or perhaps some pomegranate seeds or orange pieces. You can also include pickled items here too, like pickled radishes or onion.

Tangy – feta cheese or sour cream/yoghurt in the dressing

Crunchy – croutons, carrots, sweetcorn or roasted nuts (a lovely sprinkle of hazelnuts or cashews really help make a salad sing)

Salty/Umami – sardines/tuna, soy sauce, roasted tomato halves

Sweet – chopped dates or roasted sweet potato. You can also try some sweeter fruits like peaches.

Fresh – this is your traditional salad ingredients, like iceburg, romaine or little gem lettuce, cucumber, bell peppers or edamame peas.

Earthy – roasted vegetables, especially root vegetables or beetroot.

Grains/Pasta/beans/pulses –these can make up the base of the salad but do experiment with options with a flavour of their own, such as cooked lentils or wild rice.

Fresh Feta Salad

Cucumber

Sweet peppers

Rocket leaves

Dates

Pomegranate seeds

Cashews

Feta Cheese

Sweet potato

No need for measurements here because it’s a very relaxed dish so just use roughly equal amounts of the above. I did peel, chop and roast the sweet potato in a little oil in the oven for about 25 minutes until soft but still holding shape. I also roasted the cashews for a couple of minutes in a hot pan until golden, just to enhance the flavour.

Chop and mix until you are happy. In this salad, you could also add wild rice if wanted to make it more substantial. I also used the feta cheese for both the creamy and the tang!

Fresh Peach Salad

Fresh peaches

Avocado

Rocket leaves

Pistachios

Burrata cheese

Balsamic drizzle

As above, no need for quantities, just gather your ingredients, pop into a bowl and lightly toss together. I did cut the peaches into segments and popped them into a frying pan for a couple of minutes each side to slightly caramelise the peaches and give some texture. I also kept the rocket leaves to about 1/3 of the ingredients to give it some texture. The beauty of rocket is that it also provides a little bitterness to offset the sweetness of the fruit.,