Sunshine Salad :-)

Lately I have got hooked on salads, I never looked at salads as a main course. Salads for me was always some thing that goes with the main course on the side, and how wrong I was. You can actually make a lovely light salad which can take the main spot on your dining table and what more you can eat all you want and not feel bloated. When you look at a bowl of a nice salad it looks like a mouthful of goodness and makes you feel healthy :-) Summer especially brings a bounty of lovely veggies that can make your salads delicious, in most cases you may not even want to dress the salad, the crunchy salad tastes good just on its own!
 I however am a big fan of dressing the salads, I love to have some tang and cream in my salads. The one that am about to write about has a light Mayo dressing, and trust me it was worth every bite :)
So if you are motivated enough to give it a go, here is what you need. Rather here is what I put in my salad. Go crazy, bung in what ever you have in your fridge, that is what I did and this is what went in mine:
Salad Ingredients:

1. 3 Little Gems Lettuce hearts (I like the hearts because they are very sweet tasting, you can also use the whole head tastes just as nice).
2. Half a Lemon
3. Handful of Cherry Tomatoes
4.  Handful of Olives, mine were stuffed with Garlic, but any olives will do.
5. Mini pickled onions (optional)
6. 1 small apple red or green any will do, I used red eating apple for some sweetness. If you want to make it a little more sweeter try adding some sultanas / raisins along with the apple.
7. Handful of roasted walnuts and hazelnuts (optional, use what ever seeds or nuts you have lying about)
8. Few shavings of Parmesan Cheese
9. 1 Sweet Yellow Pepper
10. Handful of warm toasted Croutons
11. Salt and Pepper to taste

Mixing the salad:

1. Chop the lettuce in chunks
2. Slice the Yellow pepper in thin strips
3. Shave the Parmesan cheese into long strips, I do this with a veg peeler
4. Slice the apple in bite size slices or thin as you wish
5. Skin the walnuts and hazelnuts and roughly chop them or simply break them into bite size pieces.
6. If you are using ready made croutons reheat them or make some fresh from any left over bread.
7. Mix the salad in a large bowl, so that there is enough room while dressing the salad.
8. Squeeze a little bit of lemon, so that the salad remains fresh and doesn't turn black.
9. Add salt and Pepper to taste,
10. Toss the salad well together and this is how it will look like->>

 Dressing ingredients:

1. A big dollop of Fat Free Mayo (use a proper mayo if you are not bothered about the calories :), this you can use as much as you want depending on how light or heavy you want to dress the salad.
2. A squeeze of lemon (about a teaspoon)
3. 1 teaspoon Grainy Mustard
4. 1 teaspoon Dijon Mustard
5. 1 teaspoon Honey
6. 1 table spoon Olive oil
7. Beat all of the above ingredients together until it incorporates all the ingredients well and turns a little lighter. 

 Dressing the Salad: 

Pour the dressing over the salad. Dress the salad well until every leaf is coated well.


 If you can't  be bothered to make the dressing, just get a good quality Cesar dressing that will work well too :)

Useful tip - Dress the salad right when you are about to eat so that the salad remains crisp and store any left over in an air tight container for another day. I don't eat the left over for more than a day generally.

This salad is quite versatile, if you want to add some meat, fish or chicken it works brilliantly, just add some boiled eggs or cooked prawns or shredded roast chicken and that makes a lovely meal too :-)

Do let me know if you made the salad or how you made it if you changed it around, I will be keen to know :)

Bon Appétit!!!