When the heat suddenly hits you over the head with a jackhammer and there’s no where to run; only one kind of food can actually make the heat tolerable – cold salads.

So salads it is. Cold, refreshing, soothing salads. Salads that come in different shapes and sizes. Yes, you’ve been trying to escape salads ever since you first noticed the initial extra pounds. You probably did that because you found the greens boring, hated the chopping, and couldn’t see the point in starving. Guess what? You didn’t have to do any of that.

Let’s pause at this point and focus on three essential points here:

Salads can be delicious.
Salad dressings can be fun and yummy.
Salads can be filling.

When someone told me this and proved it by offering me a really delicious salad a few years ago, I wore a baffled expression while I chewed on the soothing wholesomeness. I quickly quizzed this person and got a few principles down in my recipe book. Here are my top five:

You can mix fruits and vegetables: Fruits like pomegranates, pineapples, and grapefruit go excellently with greens and vegetables. They add a ripe, sweet texture to the salad that makes each bite spring a surprise on your taste buds. For starters, try adding pomegranate seeds to your regular salad and notice the change in taste.
Add dry fruits or nuts to your salads: A few walnuts or chopped almonds add a nutty flavour to your salad. Think desserts, think flavours that are not just leafy. Along with giving you the goodness of Omega3 fatty acids, the nuts will also keep you energised long after the greens have left the building.
Tired of chopping? Try shredding and bunging in. I know the routine. It’s boring. Buy the veggies. Chop. Chop. Chop. Thud. Instead, buy a combination of greens like rocket, spinach (yes you can eat it raw), red lettuce, iceberg lettuce, and just wash and shred them into your salad. Buy cherry tomatoes instead of regular tomatoes, and just wash and add.
With all this effort on flavours, texture, background, what do you do for body? The answer is simple. What are your favourite foods? Potatoes? Boil a potato, and chop it in. Sausages? Steam some, and chop them in. Cucumber, carrots, zuchini, apples, paneer, cheese, add whatever you like.
The salad dressing: This is what separates the real salads from the watery, wilted stuff your next door udipi joint sells in the name of salad. Vinaigrette is essentially a simple dressing that involves three basic ingredients: oil, vinegar or lemon juice, herbs and spices. Sounds a little daunting? Shouldn’t. This is the simplest dressing you can ever add. Here’s what you do: Add three parts extra virgin olive oil, one part vinegar or lemon juice, and crack some salt and pepper into it as per taste. That’s it. It’s really just that simple. And once you sprinkle this over your salad, you’ll find the taste divine.

There you have it. The five reasons why salads don’t have to be boring. And of course you can do more. Add last night’s chicken, or some lentils, sprinkle some sliced onions, nothing’s taboo, everything’s allowed. Bored of the vinaigrette? Switch to skimmed yogurt. Season the yogurt with some salt and pepper, maybe even some nutmeg and powdered cinnamon. Make the summer salad your friend, and it will not disappoint.