Summer Salad

HERE we go again with another salad for the summer. Lovely, light, fresh, crisp and crunchy with all the colours of the rainbow in it....well, at least it's got more than a combination of four colours you need for good health - red, purple, orange, green, yellow, white... Toss with a dressing of your choice and tuck into this healthy, refreshing salad this summer.

What you need:

Half a small red cabbage
1 small cucumber
1 carrot
1 green pepper
1 yellow pepper
1 big tomato
5 button mushrooms
Salad dressing

Shred the red cabbage (called red, but it's actually purple), and thinly slice the carrot and cucumber and mushrooms. Cut the peppers in diagonals. Chop the tomato. Toss together with salad dressing just before serving, else the salad will turn limp.

You can also add either a chopped apple or a couple of chopped pineapple slices, or fresh pomegranate to the salad, as well as a handful of chopped walnuts if you have them handy. A handful of fresh sweet corn kernels thrown in are also lovely.

PS: I used a shop-bought Italian salad dressing, but if you don't have that, a simple home-made French vinaigrette is just great! Here's how to make it:

In a small empty jam bottle, pour about a tablespoon of white vinegar, a dash of pepper and salt, 1/4 teaspoon sugar, two cloves of crushed garlic and two tablespoons of salad oil. Screw cap tightly on bottle and shake vigorously to blend all ingredients together. Ready for use.

And if you don't even feel up to making that, a loving squeeze of fresh lemon and a dash of salt is good enough.