Crunch time

“A SALAD SHOULD BE A BALANCED MIX OF TEXTURES WITH A VARIETY OF FRAGRANT, SWEET, SHARP AND SALTY FLAVOURS”

Words: Ed Smith

Summertime means salads – the freshness, variety and style of produce prompts them, while the weather necessitates less time near a hot stove and more time eating crunchy, fragrant, and invigorating foods.

What makes a good salad, though?

To answer that, we should probably first define what a salad actually is. What links a bowl full of lettuce leaves with a platter of tomatoes, a Greek-style mix of cucumbers and feta, or some burnt corn kernels, combined with jalapeños, coriander and lime?

Alexa, define ‘salad’

Obviously, as it’s 2025, I checked with ChatGPT as to what the aggregation of human knowledge considers ‘salad’ to be. Happily, it wasn’t actually that helpful – almost as if something that’s never eaten food isn’t as discerning as a sentient being (yet)!

Distilling the points the app dredged up, though, plus dictionary definitions and (gasp) my own thoughts, might I propose something along the following lines:

A salad is:

(a) a collection of raw edible leaves; or

(b) a dish of vegetables and / or fruits, which may be raw or cooked, but are typically served cold

bound by a dressing, and often combined with a variety of other embellishments and toppings, including (but not limited to) seeds, nuts, grains, cheeses, cooked or cured meats.

Quite broad, then. But a decent place to begin.

Whether it’s leaves-based or an assembly of other things, to my mind and mouth a good salad should be a balanced mix of textures. There should be a variety of fragrant, sweet, sharp and salty flavours. And the dressing should gloss and lift the ingredients, unifying not overwhelming them.  

The other – and perhaps easier – way to ensure a salad is good is to use great ingredients! Shopping at a place like Borough Market makes this part easy. In reality, you’re only restricted by the limits of your imagination, but consider these building blocks.

The leaves

As mentioned, not every salad needs to be a leafy one. But if it’s this type of salad that you’re after, think about the following:

— Look beyond iceberg lettuce and supermarket bagged salad

While iceberg lettuce is excellent as a wedge-style salad, drenched in a ranch or blue cheese dressing, we can do better. Walk around the various Borough Market grocers and you’ll find a wide variety of whole lettuces, including butterhead, romaine and frilly, multicoloured heads of lettuce that few know the name of. Buy a couple of different lettuces and keep them refrigerated in their brown paper bags. They’ll last longer than those gassed bags from the supermarket, which somehow wilt and pong as soon as they’ve been opened.

— Seek vibrant flavours, not just carriers of dressing

More specifically, treat your mix of leaves as vital and variable ingredients, each with its own defined flavours. It’s good to have a neutral base, but at the Market you’ll also find the punchiest rocket, watercress, radicchio and other bitter chicories. If you’re lucky and it’s the right time of year, you might chance upon sorrel and mustard leaves, their distinctive citrus and, err, mustardy qualities capable of lifting a salad like no others. 13 Acre Orchard often has really vibrant leaves in its refrigerated section. Because they are flavoursome, a little goes a long way.

— Use fresh herbs

If those things don’t take your fancy, or you’ve not spotted anything beyond the normal leaves, grab some fresh herbs and treat them like salad leaves. One of the advantages of buying herbs from the Market instead of a supermarket is that they come in huge bunches and represent great value. Using things like mint, parsley and dill with abandon will make your salad sing. Grocers like Hickson & Daughter and Turnips are great for these.

The other vegetables and fruits

— Understand that everything salads (verb)

Per the broad definition at the top, most vegetables can be turned into a salad. There are the obvious and traditional things, such as cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers and radishes. But think slightly towards the edge of the box for things such as corn on the cob, asparagus, fresh peas and green beans, which you may (or may not) prefer to blanch and shock. Harder items like celery, courgettes, fennel and kohlrabi, and fruits like apples, pears, persimmon,are best sliced thinly with a mandolin. Root vegetables such as potatoes and squash can be boiled or roasted, then cooled. Really the best thing to do is stand in the middle of one of the greengrocers, look at what’s in abundance, and take it from there.

— But keep it focused

That said, don’t just throw everything in. It’s good to think either in ones (a straight up tomato or roast pepper or beetroot salad, punctuated by one or two embellishments – see below) or in threes, with each of the core salad ingredients offering a different flavour – perhaps one is relatively neutral, another feisty, and the other sweet. Kohlrabi, radish and apple, for example. Or cucumber, red pepper and tomato. Or avocado, green pepper and sweetcorn.

The interesting bits

This is where doing your salad shopping at Borough Market becomes really smart. Where artisans have already imparted layers of flavour into particular ingredients, this immediately adds their quality to whatever you’re preparing. You can and should explore and let your creativity go wild, but some of my favourite salad embellishments include:

— Jarred and deli-style bits

Not every salad, but quite a lot of them (particularly non-leafy varieties), benefits from the contents of jars or deli tubs. Marinated olives, capers, salted anchovies, sundried tomatoes, pickled peppers, artichoke hearts in oil, and other antipasti are all ideal. There are loads of places to pick up really good versions, including Oliveology, Borough Olives, De Calabria, Gastronomica, Brindisa and Northfield Farm.

— Cured meats or sharp cheeses

There’s no better place in London to shop for quality, artisan cheeses and cured meats. And using those things in a salad is an excellent way of making your purchase go a long way – little nuggets of sharp, punchy flavour and pleasing textures, interspersed among leaves or crunchy vegetables. There are over 25 dairy and cured meat traders at The Market – take your pick!

— Something crunchy

Really good nuts, such as hazelnut, walnuts, cobnuts, pistachios from the likes of Food & Forest, Oliveology and Brindisa, will provide a notable and moreish savoury crunch. Alternatively cut or blitz your two-day old end of sourdough, focaccia or rye bread, slick with olive oil and fry or bake into croutons. 

The dressing

Return to my definition at the top and you’ll note that the crucial element in a salad is the dressing: it is this that binds the various elements, and in so doing turns a collection of unrelated ingredients into a salad.

A dressing might simply be a squeeze of lemon or splash of vinegar, it could be one of those acidic items whisked into an emulsion with olive oil, or it could involve multiple other flavourings – mustard, maple, honey, herbs, yoghurt or buttermilk. Again, the world is your oyster. And again, if you’re shopping for dressing ingredients at Borough Market, then you’re off to a good start. There are too many options and dressing styles to detail here, but there are a few points worth noting.

— Olive oil is not neutral

Some olive oild are grassy, some are peppery, some are really, really feisty. It’s ideal to have a few options in your cupboard. Try before you buy at traders such as The Olive Oil Co.

— Quality vinegars are game-changing

There are masses of fantastic balsamic vinegars to try at the Market. But I also recommend adding a quality sherry vinegar and moscatel vinegar to your arsenal. And spend time at Fitz Fine Foods, who have a variety of really interesting fruit-infused vinegars and flavoursome mustards.

— Honey goes a long way

I like dressings that are not just sharp, but also a little bit sweet. A good honey is one of the nicest ways to round off a dressing. Once again, there’s loads to choose from at Borough Market, including at From Field and Flower.

That’s it. Once you look beyond the meagre and dispiriting bags of supermarket salad and instead build bowls and platters of Market-bought ingredients, you’ll never look back.