Four Tips For Preparing Exciting Summer Salads

03 Jun Four Tips For Preparing Exciting Summer Salads

It’s June, which means it’s officially the summer! We can’t wait for the warm weather and bright nights and we are sure you are the same!

Not only does this season bring with it the promise of sunnier days, but it’s usually also a time where we change our diet a little bit. The summer is a great time to enjoy lighter dishes which are not only great in the hot weather but also help if you are working on your beach body for your holidays or just want to look slimmer in your more revealing summer clothes. With our top tips and private cooking lessons, you can enjoy fresh, seasonal meals throughout the summer months.

One light and diverse dish that is loved over the summer months is the old faithful salad! Whether enjoyed as a starter, side or a heartier version with the addition of avocado or chicken, there is so much you can do with salad this summer.

There is no need for a salad to be boring and with our top tips, you will find yourself continuously reinventing this dish over the summer. Salad will never be the same again!

So, here is what we suggest you do to liven up your salad this summer:

1. Venture Into The Fruit Aisle– don’t just stick to green leaves in your salad but add some colour and a sweet kick with the addition of fruit! Pomegranate tastes great and gives a satisfying crunch with soft avocado or you could opt for some dry fruit such as cranberries, raisins, apricots or prunes and make a tabouleh style salad with either bulgur wheat or cous cous and plenty of mint and parsley.
2. Stock Up On Fresh Herbs– fill your kitchen window sill with pots of freshly grown herbs. Using freshly cut herbs really gives your salad that refreshing burst of flavour it needs and we say to not be moderate when adding your parsley, coriander, mint or any other herb of your choice! Adding fresh herbs can make a salad from the simplest ingredients complete. We love cherry tomatoes with red onion, salt and plenty of coriander or parsley and then the juice of half a lemon to finish it off, which brings us to our next tip!
3. A Squeeze Of Lemon– this makes all the difference to your salad. Like your herbs, make sure your lemon is fresh and you use a lemon squeezer to get all the juice rather than simply squeezing it over your salad by hand. Lemon can also come in really handy if you are making a salad dressing. Both the juice and the zest of the lemon are great to use in a salad dressing. Some other ingredients you can experiment with to make your own dressing are Dijon mustard, olive oil, freshly ground salt, freshly ground black pepper and lemon juice and zest.
4. Don’t Just Stick To Veg– we have already mentioned adding fruit to your green salad, but how about also trying a dessert salad with fruit? A Moroccan orange salad is a refreshing alternative to ice cream or an ice lolly on a hot sunny day. Prepare your orange, however you prefer, in segments or rings but make sure all peel is removed. Lightly pour rose water over the orange, do this based on the taste of the rose water and your preference. You only need a little bit of rose water or if you’re a big fan you can put more but whether it is a hint or a strong rose taste, combined with the orange it will really hit the spot in the warm weather. Next, sprinkle the tiniest amount of ground salt and then the tiniest drizzle of olive oil over the oranges and finish off with a dusting of ground cinnamon and freshly chopped Morrocan mint.

With our top tips we are sure that you won’t get bored of salad this summer, whether you are adding pomegranate to your green salad or sprinkling rose water over oranges!

If we have inspired you to look into healthy eating more or just to be more adventurous when making salads then why not organise a cooking lesson with us? At our lessons you can learn whatever you want whether this is different types of salad or any other dish, we can take on any theme or dishes you are interested in.

You can read more about our lessons here and if you’d be interested in booking a lesson all you have to do is get in touch!