How to build the perfect salad

Summer means salads. They are the perfect way to use seasonal ingredients and turn them into something delicious and light when the sun is shining.

There are countless classic salad recipes that you can use, such as a Greek salad with tomatoes, cucumbers, black olives and feta cheese; or an English garden salad with all the seasonal ingredients from the vegetable patch; as well as variations of chicken salad and a more modern kale salad. They all offer a way to enjoy the seasonal flavours of summer fruits and vegetables.

Pasta salad – or a macaroni salad as it is known in the US – is a great way to use up leftover pasta and can make a wonderful main course or even a side dish. Meanwhile, a green salad with a classic dressing of oil and vinegar, like a French salad, might be the purest form of the dish. A potato salad makes a great side dish at any time of year and can accompany any kind of salad bowl, while adding green beans will make any salad a complete meal. Sometimes the salad that you make up on the fly with whatever is in the fridge, with a dash of olive oil and a good shake of sea salt, is the most satisfying of all. Here are some ingredients you can use in a salad, try as many combinations of them as you want and enjoy.

Leafy greens

Green leaves provide the base to most summer salads, with dark leafy greens like collard in particular adding a lovely bitter flavour upon which to build more salad ingredients, like sweet fruits and vegetables or proteins. Romaine lettuce is the basis of some classics, such as the Caesar salad. Swiss chard has a nice bitterness and freshness to it, and bok choy will provide a lovely fresh crunchiness and works well for Asian-inspired salads.

Chopped vegetables

Choose any seasonal vegetables to chop and put in your salad. Carrots, courgettes or zucchini, tomatoes, cucumbers, green beans, peppers, chillies, olives, onions, scallions, maize, or whatever you can get your hands on, can be finely chopped and mixed together with a handful of flat-leaf parsley and a vinaigrette dressing, or a squeeze of lemon juice, makes an excellent main or side dish.

Nuts and seeds

Walnuts, Brazil nuts, peanuts and hazelnuts all make great additions to your summer salad. They add some crunch and saltiness to the dish, and of course provide some protein for nutrition. Nuts and seeds are good sources of protein, healthy fats, fibres, vitamins, and minerals.

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Fresh herbs

A handful of fresh herbs, finely chopped and thrown into your green salad, add another layer of flavour on top of leafy greens, chopped vegetables and nuts and seeds. Parsley, basil, sage, chives, cilantro, mint, dill and oregano are all wonderful herbs that can add character and flavour.

Dried or fresh fruit

Dried or fresh fruit like oranges, dried apricots, prunes or figs can bring sweetness and freshness to a salad. In Asian salads, mandarin oranges are often added, while a classic American Waldorf salad calls for chopped apples. Sundried tomatoes, of course, are always welcome in a salad.

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Beans and legumes

Beans and legumes like chickpeas, peas, lentils, kidney beans, black beans, soybeans, pinto beans, navy beans and peanuts contain antioxidants that help prevent cell damage and fight disease and ageing.

Cheese

Blue cheese goes in a cobb salad, Parmesan cheese goes in a Caesar salad, but you can add cheddar, Gruyere, Edam, or Emmental… in fact, any kind of hard cheese or soft cheese is a good addition to a salad adding protein and calcium, fat, and protein.

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Eggs

Boiled eggs are an ingredient in a Cobb salad, and adding them to your salad is great for protein. But eggs make a great salad in themselves – egg salad, mixed with mayonnaise, chopped scallions and a sprinkling of chopped parsley is delicious.

Meat

Generally chicken is the preferred meat for a salad, but rare beef also works well. Meat is not always necessary, but putting it in a salad is a really excellent serving method, with the freshness of the salad making a great base for the saltiness of the meat protein. Marinated meats also work very well.