Salad is all I am eating at the moment.

For me it tends to be sweet salad vegetables: iceberg lettuce, cucumber, carrots, sweetcorn, cherry tomatoes. Very often with a fruit such as pear or apricot, or nuts, cheese, sometimes with a pan fried fish or some chicken.

What are your ideas for a salad?

Don't eat it is my idea.

I always like a good Greek salad - just big rough chunks of feta, cucumber, tomato, sprint onions and black olives with olive oil/lemon juice dressing.

I have two basic salads......

Mayo salad. This is crunchy veg, fruit, nuts chopped up in a bowl with some kind of fish or cheese and a dollop of mayo whisked around to coat everything........usually a combination of any 4 or so of these - white cabbage, apple, cucumber, celery, spring onion, carrot, walnuts, tuna, salmon, cheese

Tomato salad. This is chopped up tomato, celery, cucumber, olives, basil.......sometimes with ripped up salami or diced cheese. Mixed in a bowl with olive oil to coat

I'm not keen on lettuce and I find those salad leaves go off too quick so I tend to stick to hard crunchy things that keep for a few days.

I like adding roasted cashews for a little added dimension

Carrot salad with dried fruit and nuts and a citrus dressing
Courgette salad with garlic, mint and chilli

You can grate the carrot/courgette, but I like them more matchstick-like, so I either use a very coarse grating disc in the food processor, or a julienne cutter.
Season to taste and feel free to swap things in or out.

The carrot salad
I like to soak the dried fruit in orange or lime juice in advance. I use a handful of cranberries and mixed raisins.
Zest the orange or limes before juicing and add the zest to the salad.
Some peanuts or walnuts are nice in it too.
Mix everything together with the grated carrot.
Make a dressing with olive oil, a little Dijon mustard, a little brown sugar and the juice of the limes. I just put it all in a jar and shake it. If you're using orange juice rather than lime it will be sweet enough without the sugar.
Sprinkle with fresh chives or parsley if you like.
This salad keeps well in the fridge for a few days, and the fruit absorbs the juices.

The courgette salad.
Prepare the courgettes to your liking, julienned, ribbons or spiralised.
Add some finely chopped garlic and chilli to your taste, and the zest of a lemon.
Squeeze over plenty of lemon juice and toss it with a little olive oil.
Stir in plenty of chopped fresh mint, or whatever fresh herb you may prefer.

I also adore Italian tricolore salad made with fresh tomatoes, chunks of mozzarella and basil leaves, tossed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar. I always add a few snipped-up anchovies as well, and maybe some black olives. Good bread to mop up the juices. Heaven.

Cole slaw is one of my stand bys and I will make enough to last a couple of days. I like it quite chunky and not soggy.

Start with the mayonnaise, I usually stir in plenty of Dijon or whole grain mustard, and a squeeze of lemon.

Then usually white cabbage, a little mild onion, celeriac if i have it, cut into matchsticks, carrots ditto, and celery for its fresh crunch.

In a similar vein, coarsely grated celeriac and apple go very well together, and I usually make this with mayonnaise and horseradish mustard.

Just remembered I posted this on another thread, so I'll put it here for your consideration.

Chicken liver salad is really tasty and refreshing and surprisingly filling.
I make a green salad out of a crunchy lettuce like cos or romaine, chunks of celery and cucumber.
Saute some bacon bits until they're crispy, and then the chicken livers.
You can do a bit of chopped chorizo too if you like.
Add a splash of sherry vinegar to the pan juices and mix everything into the salad.

Watermelon and Feta salad, basically salad leaves and whatever like cucumber and add watermelon chunks (seedless if available) and crumbled Feta. The salt of the Feta goes with sweet of the WM.

I bought a watermelon yesterday, so I'm going to buy some feta and fresh mint today and try that for lunch.

Had some for lunch. Really good.

This is going on my shopping list too

Papaya salad is my favourite.Som Tam. I can't find Green Papaya. It is still nice with the supermarket variety.

I like it with a mustardy dill sauce mixed with yoghurt. Coronation Coleslaw is delicious.

I like mixed leaves, green olives, watercress, cucumber with some cheddar / mozzarella / stuffed pepppers and I'll usually grill up so home-made chicken, with a balsamic, chilli and olive oil dressing - currently on a low carb diet so avoiding carrot and sweetcorn even though I love them

I have two main salads, although they are accompaniment salads rather that a main.


Rocket and/or watercress, cherry tomatoes and red onion (doesn't have to be red but I prefer it for this).
Half or quarter the cherry tomatoes and thinly slice the red onion

Then make a dressing of sweet chilli sauce, soy sauce, balsamic vinegar and olive oil to taste.

Rip some of the rocket/watercress into a bowl and add the tomatoes and onion. Pour over the dressing and give it a toss.


This salad I use for steak, especially 5-spiced marinated steak (rare).

You could make it into a main meal by slicing the steak up and adding it to the salad bowl,





The next is what I refer to as a bog standard takeaway salad.

Shredded iceberg lettuce, sliced white onion and pickled red cabbage (jarred is fine).
Add chilli sauce and garlic sauce to suit.


I have this when I have takeaway type meals such as chicken parmo or kebab.