It is also the time of the year for salads and cold food - no more sweating in a hot kitchen over family meals.
You must be joking I hear many of you say - my family wouldn't accept salad as a meal - "It's boring", "It doesn't fill me up" "It's not man food"
Well if you serve a limp bit of lettuce, tasteless tomatoes and bland coleslaw they will be proved right. A salad or as the dictionary says 'a cold collation of food' doesn't have to be a handful of rocket plonked on the side of a pork chop. It doesn't have to be a processed cheese ploughman's and it doesn't have to be so devoid of protein or carbohydrates that you are left wondering if you have eaten anything at all.....
Lets challenge the salad to be nutritious, interesting, filling and fun. It is a time to add all sorts of varieties of nuts , seeds and exotic fruits that you never normal buy. It is the time to introduce your children to vegetables and pulses that they would never choose. It doesn't have to be expensive although one does have to shop around to get the most flavoursome ingredients at good value. Try local markets and look for good salad and vegetables near their sell by date which maybe sold cheaply and can be substituted in many recipes.
Lets look at some salads that are full meals in themselves ad some that can be served with a simply grilled piece of fish meat.
1..Salad Nicoise
Use as a main course with warm crusty bread on a picnic or on the buffet table
2. Smoked Turkey Plum & Fennel Salad
Again with sourdough rye bread or just on its own it works well in lunch boxes to take to work
3. Asparagus, potato ,avocado-and rocket-salad
Eat with hummus if you are vegan or otherwise great with peeled prawns or smoked salmon
4.Courgette fennel and giant couscous with mint
Part of 'The Telegraph's' picnic series but also delicious with barbecued meat or fish
5.Spinach feta and pinenut Salad
Ideal for a starter at a diner party - the quickest delicious starter you can make!
6.Thai Style Beef Salad
For the meat eaters instead of a Sunday roast!
7. Chicken beetroot and walnut salad
Simply yet tasty - beetroot has many healthy nutrients so a welcome addition to a meal
8. Avocado Mango & Tomato Salad
A favourite- light, tangy and refreshing
9. Greek Salad with sardines
Oily fish is good source of essential fatty acids and is fairly cheap to buy so a good quick cheap lunch dish.
10. Summer Four Grain Salad
Jamie Oliver's great vegetarian dish that uses up many of those ingredients in your cupboard and tastes delicious
We could go on as there are many more out there but I am getting hungry already and hope they add value to your dinner table.
