Since we are on the topic of salads!

So, Anu’d asked to easy-to-put together recipes. The first thing that came to my mind as soon as I read that sentence was “Salad!”. But then I am guessing the first that came to your minds as you read my last sentence was, “Boring!”

Let me try and interest you in changing your mind. Salads don’t have to be boring. And no, I ‘m not gonna say add half a pound of friend bacon to make your perk up your salad. There are other ways to do it, one just has to scout a little harder for the right ingredients, and NOT BE AFRAID TO EXPERIMENT!

So, Anu’d asked to easy-to-put together recipes. The first thing that came to my mind as soon as I read that sentence was “Salad!”. But then I am guessing the first that came to your minds as you read my last sentence was, “Boring!”

Let me try and interest you in changing your mind. Salads don’t have to be boring. And no, I ‘m not gonna say add half a pound of friend bacon to make your perk up your salad. There are other ways to do it, one just has to scout a little harder for the right ingredients.

There was a time when I used to take salad for lunch daily—and I did this for months without getting bored of what I ate (and I have the attention span of a ping pong ball, so THAT is huge), so I think this is good sort of advice. A salad can only be as good as the things you put in it (so is everything else in life, so yay for profound me, huh?). The trick is to mix things up.

1. Try and have at least 4 different main ingredients in your salad—don’t try and eat JUST lettuce for lunch, it's tiring, unsatisfying, and after a week, might make you want to weep. And when you say 4 different things, really mix up your ingredients. Move from the tried-tested-works to the hmmm-what-if-I-try-this. Take risks, some days will be spectacularly bad, and you may hate your morning self for putting your lunch self through the ordeal, but then some days will be pure serendipity.

2. Try new veggies, try new, and lean kinds of meat. Trick with meat is to opt for the non-friend, and laden with a million spices variety. Try grilling/toasting a small piece of meat with some pepper corns, garlic, and salt. Add say tomatoes, cucumber, some colourful bell pepper and bingo, you have a new salad.

3. Make friends with herbs—fresh or dried, these things can perk up your salad without loading it with calories. Plus they have other associated health benefits that google will tell you with more authority than I can J

4. Mix flavours—add a sweet fruit with a tangy veggie, add a cooked ingredient (say boiled pasta/potoatoes/eggs/lightly sauted veggie that you cant eat raw) with the uncooked ones.

5. Add fruit to your salad—they bring in colour, flavour, and well, joy J

6. Add nuts and seeds for crunch—in small amounts. Melon seeds are my favourites and they are very easily available in India.

7. You could avoid carbs in your salad if you need to, but be sure to include some protein—nuts, eggs, meat all help. Just veggies and fruits will leave you feeling cheated after a while.

8. Don’t ve afraid of the dressing, but try and avoid store bought ones. More often than not, they are not healthy, and the preservatives are often fattening, defeating the purpose of the salad.

And since Anu asked for recipe, and so far, I’ve been trying to get away with vague ideas, here is the recipe for a very simple salad dressing. The measurement are a li’l vague, you could, and should, experiment and see what combination works best for you. This makes a generous dressing for a generous bowl of salad J

Juice of half a lemon

A teaspoon of mustard (you can pick brand/amount of heat as you prefer)

Pinch of salt

A tablespoon of honey

A teaspoon of olive oil

Generous pinches of pepper

I like to add a sprinkling of chilli flakes for extra heat, but you could ignore this.

Take all the above in a blow, whisk together, and you are done! It is one of my favourite dressings (and this is just something I came up with after trial and error, so it’s a no name dressing). Works well with most veggies, and select fruits (apples, strawberries, peaches, I have tried and liked. Mango I have tried and not liked so much.), beautifully with meat and eggs.

You could supplement the lemon with vinegar, but then probably not take a very pungent one. You could omit out the olive oil entirely. You could use a teaspoon of sugar instead of honey, but then the taste is only a passable reproduction. You could add sprinklings of dried herbs for added flavour—mint was my favourite. TASTE IT AS YOU ARE MAKING IT, then you can add more or less of things depending on what you like.

If you are taking this for lunch, remember to add the dressing only just before you are eating--or your veggies will become soggy and yucky. You could cut the veggies up beforehand and leave them in the fridge, you could make the dressing up and leave in fridge. It will last without fridge for a day--just the dressing some resting time--make it and let it stand for say 20 mins at least, so that the flavours have time to blend together.

So that then!