Super Salads

Enjoy some fresh new flavour combinations this summer!

National Salad Week starts on 7th June this year and is a wonderful initiative to encourage people to eat more fresh, vibrant, and healthy salads. This year we encourage you to move beyond sad, limp lettuce to exciting combinations of flavours and textures and transform your greens!

National Salad Week is the perfect excuse to tear up the rulebook. Forget bland bowls of iceberg lettuce and tasteless tomatoes. This annual celebration, invites us to rediscover the salad as a colourful, satisfying, and wonderfully versatile meal. Whether you need a quick lunch, a vibrant side dish, or a hearty dinner, a great salad delivers flavour, crunch, and nutrition in abundance.

The secret to a brilliant salad is balance: think creamy with crunchy, sweet with sharp, and warm with cool. To help you celebrate, here are three easy yet surprising recipes that will change the way you think about salad.

Roasted Grape & Walnut Chicken Salad

This recipe transforms simple ingredients into something special. Roasting grapes concentrates their sweetness and creates a juicy, almost jammy pop of flavour.

Method: Toss 200g of seedless red grapes with a little olive oil and salt, then roast at 200°C (400°F) for 10 minutes. Combine shredded cooked chicken, toasted walnuts, mixed rocket and spinach, and crumbled feta. Add the warm roasted grapes and toss with a simple honey-mustard dressing (one part honey, one part wholegrain mustard, two parts olive oil, and a squeeze of lemon). The warm grapes against the cool greens are a revelation.

Watermelon, Feta & Cucumber Noodle Salad

This salad is unbelievably refreshing and takes just five minutes to assemble. It uses a spiraliser or a simple vegetable peeler to create long ribbons of cucumber.

Method: Use a peeler to create long ribbons from a deseeded cucumber. Cut a wedge of watermelon into bite-sized cubes. Arrange the cucumber "noodles" on a plate, scatter with watermelon, crumbled feta, and a generous sprinkle of fresh mint leaves. Finish with a squeeze of lime juice and a crack of black pepper. The combination of sweet, salty, and herbaceous is truly addictive.

Crispy Chickpea & Avocado “Caesar”

This is a plant-based twist on the classic Caesar, swapping croutons for spiced, crispy chickpeas and the heavy dressing for a creamy, lighter tahini version.

Method: Drain and dry a can of chickpeas. Toss with paprika, garlic powder, salt, and a little oil, then air-fry or roast at 200°C for 15 minutes until crunchy. For the dressing, blend 2 tbsp tahini, juice of one lemon, one clove of garlic, 3 tbsp water, and salt until smooth. In a bowl, massage chopped romaine lettuce with the dressing, then top with the crispy chickpeas, sliced avocado, and a sprinkle of nutritional yeast or Parmesan.

Enjoy National Salad Week by making one of these – your taste buds will thank you.

Image Credits: Engin Akyurt via pexels.com