The variations are endless and pure salad lovers may well prefer more simple and separate salad combinationsI have a huge blue and white ceramic bowl which was originally purchased for bread making. It's deep enough to take a goodly batch of ingredients and big enough to allow the dough torise magnificently to the rim. It weighs a ton!
It is also my favourite salad bowl in which I am fond of concocting what family and friends refer to as the Everything Salad. This tends to include an ever-changing number of ingredients and is often a meal in itself.
Starting with a mix of pale crisp and succulent iceberg lettuce and a rich red and dark green mesculin leaf mix, I then raid the garden for baby spinach, silverbeet leaflets and young beetroot leaves. I add small round peppery nasturtium leaves (including flowers and seed pods), Italian parsley, curly leaf parsley and celery stalks with tops well chopped. Next come chopped raw baby zucchini (courgette) or grated larger ones, fresh mint (there are several varieties you can use like furry applemint and strong peppermint or ginger mint), aromatic coriander leaves and some stunning blue borage flower heads. Finely diced capisicum (sweet peppers) are a must but I tend to avoid the green ones as the flavour can sometimes be a little bitter.
Cucumber, cherry tomato, spring onions follow and are sometimes accompanied by chunks of crumbly feta or haloumi, good rich and forbidden" salty Kalamata olives, plump green Spanish Queen olives and a smattering of vinegary caperberries or capers. Chopped apple - skin included - precedes lemon zest which adds a citrus tang and finally a smattering of sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds (last minute) and/or walnuts. Ideally I dress and toss the whole scrumptious salad with freshly squeezed lemon juice and a generous sliver of virgin olive oil. Et voila!
The variations are endless and pure salad lovers may well prefer more simple and separate salad combinations like watercress and radicchio chicory, or spinach and radish both of which have a stunning colour and flavour taste sensation.
Still, there's nothing quite like gathering a basket of own home-grown salad ingredients and tossing them into the big blue bowl with whatever you fancy for an easy fresh and flavoursome lunch or to accompany the good, old 'barbie' fare.
