(Will feed 2 people as a large side or 4 people as a small side)

 I made this with my sister Hannah for lunch while we were sailing around the Ionian Islands, just off the west coast of Greece. We had anchored in a little harbour in the small town of Kioni. I think Kioni is possibly my favourite Grecian town EVER. It is so beautiful.

 Ingredients:

 1 Avocado

1 small cucumber

1 large beef tomato (or 2 medium/small beef tomatoes)

A bag of almonds

 To make this salad:

Wait for the sun to come out. Then slice and cut up beef tomatoes and cucumber into chunks, peel avocado and then also cut this into chunks. Mix up in a salad bowl. Sprinkle desired amount of almonds on top.

 To stop avocado going brown either:

1.   keep avocado stone in the salad until you serve it.

2. squeeze lemon juice all over the avocado chunks.

Perfect!!

(Will feed 7 people as a side)

Made during England vs Algeria (this fact won’t go down well with many men!! I should probably have been concentrating on the game…)

Ingredients:

1 punnet of blueberries

1 punnet of baby plum tomatoes

1 packet of watercress

The green leaves off 1 iceberg lettuce (which works out to about 1/2 an iceberg lettuce)

2 avocados

And a slab of Parmesan cheese.

To make this salad:

Pull off the green leaves on the iceberg lettuce and chop them into strips, (keep the inner white leaves for something else). Then put them into a large salad bowl and mix with the watercress and the blueberries. Slice in half and mix into the salad the baby plum tomatoes. Peel the avocado and slice into strips, mix these into the salad also. Then chop the Parmesan into thick and rough slices and throw on top.

Salad Dressing:

This salad doesn’t really need a dressing as there are a lot of juicy and flavoursome ingredients in it already. If you are desperate for one I recommend just dashing a small drop of extra virgin olive oil over the top.

Flippin’ Amazing!

(Will feed 6-7 people as a side)

I had the pleasure of devouring this salad the other week made by my good friend Steph Spurrier. It’s absolutely amazing, I couldn’t get enough of it and I highly recommend you making it.

Ingredients:

A handful of mint leaves (Steph reckons she used approx 15 mint leaves)

1 cup of peas boiled

A load of salad potatoes.

Salad dressing:

2 large spoons of mayonaise

1 large spoon of either yogurt or crème fraiche

horseradish sauce

To make this salad:

In separate saucepans boil your salad potatoes and peas until they are cooked. Salad potatoes need about 20-25 minutes and the peas will need about 3 minutes after being brought to the boil. You only to need put enough water in the pan to cover the peas, (the less water you use the less vitamin C is lost). While waiting for the potatoes and the peas to cook grab the mint and chop it up really really tiny. Drain the peas and put them with the mint into a salad bowl. Once the potatoes have cooked drain them and leave them on one side until they have cooled. Once they have cooled slice them all in half.

To make the dressing:                             

This salad dressing is flexible!

Spoon 2 large dollops of mayonnaise into a bowl and mix with either 1 large dollop of yogurt or mayonnaise.

Optional bit: add a small spoonful of horseradish.

Hey presto!!

Will feed 2 people as a main or 4 people as a side.

Ingredients:

4 large carrots

2 pots of cress or a bag of watercress

1 large bunch of asparagus

1 bag of walnuts

1 apple

Approx 3cm X 3cm X 2cm cube of hard Parmesan cheese

1 bag of baby spinach

2-4 teaspoons of honey (depending on how sweet you want the dressing)

A glug of extra virgin olive oil

To make this salad:

Grate the carrots using a vegetable peeler (See this link for the type of peeler that works best for this job). Grate the carrots into long strips like a flat Udon noodle. Grab a large salad bowl and put the grated carrot into it. Cut the cress from it’s growing bed and throw that in too. Slice the asparagus in half straight down the middle from head to toe. Keep the asparagus on the side and boil a kettle to cook it. Break up the walnuts into smaller pieces with a pestle and mortar or just use your hands as they actually don’t need to be broken up too small -which ever is easiest. Throw these walnuts into the large salad bowl too. Then slice up the apple in anyway you want and put in to the bowl as well. Grab the asparagus and using the boiled water cook it lightly either in a steamer or by boiling it (It tastes nicer steamed and apparently it’s better for you). While the asparagus is cooking (should only take a couple of minutes) open the packet of baby spinach and mix into the large salad bowl with everything else that’s already in there. Then cut up the cube of parmesan into thin flakes, don’t put this into the salad bowl yet- this is going to be sprinkled on top in a sec. Test the asparagus with a fork, if it’s ready drain it and put into the large salad bowl to join the rest of the salad. If it’s not ready give it a bit longer, maybe till after you’ve made the dressing. Once the asparagus is in the salad bowl mix the whole salad up and then sprinkle the flakes of Parmesan on the top of it.

To make this dressing:

The only dressing I think this salad needs is some honey mixed with extra virgin olive oil. Glug as much olive oil you want to use into a cup then add the tea spoons of honey and mix together with a fork (If you use hard honey you’ll need to heat it a bit so it blends well with the olive oil). Only add the dressing just as you are about to serve up the salad otherwise the spinach and cress will go a bit soggy.

 Enjoy!!