A recipe for a salad, to start with: the recipe section of this website, and maybe your lunch too, or your day even. Leave the spinach smoothie, make a salad instead.

This recipe is also a start for you to make your own salad, not the end of it. I hope this recipe is a first version of all the versions you’re going to make after, according to your appetite, what you have in your fridge, what simply looked good to you at the market or in the shop, what is affordable to you. If that means skipping the berries for raisins or dried currants, do it and enjoy. I personally very much like Greek currants (“currants” from “Corinth”) in a a salad. As the bilberries, they give a nice sweet and sour touch to lift the other ingredients. And their dried intensity balances out the water-filled cucumber and tomato.

When making choices, as much as possible, I would suggest to favour quality of ingredients over luxuriousness. Sometimes, a little extra time investment, can buy you more quality (washing your own salad leaves, rather than buying them pre-packed), but sometimes even time is a luxury. Just try it and enjoy. Honour what you have made for yourself and your loved ones. A salad to start with.

A summer salad

Ingredients

Lettuce leaves: preferably more tender nutty varieties (with deep green/red leaves) rather than watery and crispy (paler green)

Cucumber: try buying them at different places to notice differences in flavour and intensity. The very small ones you sometimes find at the market or in a Mediterranean/Middle Eastern shop are lovely too, more delicate.

Tomato: variety of your choice, maybe slightly fresher, not too sweet ones to create a contrast and balance with the berries. If you leave the berries out altogether, an intense and sweet variety may be just what you like.)

Red onion or a shalot: more tender than white onions I generally find.

Bilberries, (wild) blueberries: defrosted, if frozen. Or let them to defrost once added to your salad. This way it will only take 15 minutes or so.

Extra virgin olive oil: many price ranges and qualities are available. It should be pleasant to taste on its own (flavour depending on olive variety, area, soil and weather, from mild to slightly peppery and a bit bitter). If it tastes biting and a bit rancid on its own, making you want to turn away from it, trust yourself.

(Red) wine vinegar: you can (partly) replace with fresh lemon juice.

Sea salt: its variety of minerals, more than just sodium chloride as in table salt, results in a richer flavour. Flavour and colour depending on the area and sea of collection.

Freshly ground pepper: as it has will lose a lot of its flavour when pre-ground and packed long before. You can also leave it out if you prefer your salad milder or use a peppery type of salad leaves like rocket/arugola.

Herbs: one or a mix. Parsley, mint, dill, tarragon, chervel. Lavender buds!

Preparation

Wash and dry the lettuce leaves well. Tear them apart in a bowl. Finely slice the onion or shalot and sprinkle over the top, just for a bit of edge, not too much.

Then slice your tomato and cucumber the way you like and arrange them nicely on top. This salad is going to be something beautiful to look at as well as to eat.

Sprinkle the bilberries on top. Then carefully drizzle with olive oil and vinegar. You can use a spoon to pour the oil and vinegar evenly over the surface and be more in control of how much you add (I’d say start carefully, maybe a teaspoon of each per person and add more of either to your taste at the table or next time).

Then finish with salt, pepper and the herbs of your choice (I used fresh parsley (featured photo) and mint (photo below) here, but at other times I don’t have fresh herbs and use the leafy tops of a fennel bulb, dried dill, tarragon or mint and lavender for example. Dried parsley, I find, doesn’t retain much of its flavour after drying and I hardly use it.) You can enhance the flavour coming out of the herbs by tearing the leaves with your hands for releasing their aromatic oils.

Have a look at the salad, the colours, the shapes, the patterns of your arrangement. Maybe you can smell some of the herbs after tearing them in your hands.

Enjoy!