Different Salad ?

[smurfchops]

I am having a BBQ Sunday hopefully if the storms don't arrive, can someone please give me some fresh ideas for easy salads instead of the usual lettuce, tomato and cucumber? For vegans as well as meat eaters please !

[ummmm]

Potato salad always goes down well
and rice salad. Tip for the rice salad. Get vegtable rice from the freezer section of your supermarket, cook and when cooled add some mayo. Stops it drying out and tastes lovely. Make sure you memorise the ingredients on the back of the packet so you can pass it off as your own.

[juddlinski]

Chick[ea a Feta salad. gorgeous.

[mccfluff]

advocado, tom and mozarella add some olives drizzle with some good q oilve oil and there you go

[Backdrifter]

Like the sound of mcfluff's avocado salad - good one. For a good potato salad, get good quality new potatoes from a market if possible. Boil in the skins, allow to cool, and mix with chopped spring onion and mayo, plus some chopped hard boiled egg if you like.

Baby spinach leaf with cubed feta, thin-sliced red onion and black olives.

Thai noodle salad zingy with lime and chilli, perhaps? By the way there ARE storms forecast for Sunday.

[chazza]

1. Cold cooked pasta mixed with grated cheese, chopped red pepper and onion and french dressing

2. cold cooked rice with tomato and red pepper

3. Couscous salads ( you can buy these in tesco if you aren't brave enough to attempt them yourself)

[babydust]

get a tin of mixed beans from the tinned veg section drain add diced tomato cuecumber red onion peppers and corriander mix together u can also omit the corriander and i sometimes add feta and fresh lemon juice

[babydust]

*cucumber*

[Hapus]

This is a rice salad I make and is always gobbled up.
In a large bowl squeeze in the juice of a lemon and a lime.
Add some salt and ground black pepper and a small pinch of dried mixed herbs, and a little bit of olive oil. Stir.
Cook some rice until ready and rinse it throroughly in cold water.
Whilst the rice is cooking, finely dice some cucumber, red onion, tomatoes and red peppers and put into the bowl. Add the rice when its cooled and mix well.
I make a large batch of this then separate out into 3 different bowls.
Leave one bowl as it is.
In the second bowl and some prawns, then add a light mixture of seafood dressing.
In the second I do diced chicken, and I add some finely chopped jalepenos.
Yum.

[smurfchops]

Thanks you all have such good ideas. As far as couscous, which I love, I usually buy the ready made sachets - we like the Mediterranean variety - but how do you cook it and make it tasty rather than just bland ?? (Sorry I can't cook but I like cleaning ...)

[Backdrifter]

smurf get a bag of couscous and keep it handy as it's quick and easy to make and you can add whatever you like. It's much better and more economical than the packet stuff or the ready-made ones. For a generous helping for 2, or smaller helpings for 3 or 4, put 125g couscous in a large shallow bowl, and pour 200ml hot water over it, ensuring all the grains are covered. Cover the bowl with a clean tea towel (tuck the edges of the towel under the bowl to keep it snug and taut).

Before this, put a few good-quality tomatoes (preferably from a market) in the oven with a little olive oil and season well, to roast for about 15 mins. Also roast a red pepper, or just char it on the stove and rub the skin off after it's cooled a little, then chop it. Meanwhile, finely slice spring onions and chop a ripe avocado. The couscous should be ready after about 10mins - break it up with a fork, then mix in all the veg, mushing the roasted tomatoes in. Make a dressing of veg or rapeseed oil, lemon or lime juice, one small finely chopped garlic clove (ideally made into a paste with a little salt), a finely sliced small red chilli or some dried chilli flakes, and some sugar or honey. Add to each individual serving. Sprinkle with chopped coriander or/and parsley.

You can have it as is, or with a salad, or frankly with whatever and however you like. We often have it as an accompaniment to grilled salmon fillets. It'd go beautfully with some lamb roasted with oregano and rosemary. If you've leftover lamb or other meat you can chop and mix that in. Mix in whatever you feel like!

[smurfchops]

Sounds delicious ...

[BBWCHATT]

This is better made and left in the refrigerator overnight. Cook macaroni - drain and chill. Mix in mayo and whatever diced vegetables you like - I always use dill pickles (I pour in some of the juice as well) onion, red and green bell peppers - just whatever you have on hand.

[essexserpent]

grate up some carrot, finely and at last minute add some walnut oil, stir around with some mustard or caraway seeds

[shoemad]

try a pear, walnut and blue cheese salad.
lettuce, chopped walnuts, crumbled blue cheese. You can add tomatoes/cucumber if you want.
Just before serving, chop up a couple of pears and mix them in.
Drizzle with balsamic vinegar
combination of flavours is lovely.

[rqmarty]

shredded boiled eggs, smoked salmon, mayo or ranch