I crave salads in hot weather. I love them anyway, but a cold, crispy, crunchy, tasty plate of veg is particularly delightful when it’s so hot you can feel your eyeballs boiling in your skull.

Rose has a friend who brings the most amazing Rainbow Salad to gatherings. She was kind enough to share her recipe, which is more of a loose guide, and we’ve been creating our own. They are delicious! Here’s how to do it:

Grate some colourful hard vegetables, such as carrots and beetroot.

Finely chop some greens. Lettuce, spinach, kale, cress, rocket, or any combination.

Finely chop any other vegetables you want to add such as cucumber, capsicum or tomato. Remove the seeds from anything that will make the salad soggy. Add in any small items such as herbs or sprouts.

The idea is to go for a great mix of colours. 🙂

Next, lightly pan fry whatever handful of seeds or nuts you fancy. Hazelnuts, pepitas, pine nuts, sesame seeds… Add them to the salad.

If you’re feeling fancy you can add extra protein such as egg, chicken, sliced beef, or fried haloumi.

Dress with any mix of oils and acids such as olive oil, grapeseed oil, lemon juice, vinegar, verjuice… Don’t dress it until you’re about to eat. It will keep in the fridge if sealed, before you dress it.

It tastes amazing, and different every time. It’s my new favourite salad.

I’m horribly low in iron at the moment and apart from supplements my doc has recommended I eat a lot more red meat, in small portions. Apparently even a little serve of red meat with a leafy green salad like this one boosts your ability to absorb the iron from the salad.