Bite Me!

I love it when summer finally arrives, and I can eat British salad to my heart’s content, without having to worry about carbon footprints or desertification or polytunnels or any of those other unpleasant factors involved in the eating of vegetables out of season.  My great lunch stand-by for work has to be the ready-made Caesar salad in a bag – yes, those overpriced ones with all the fiddly little sachets.  Add some Quorn roasted chicken fillets and you’ve got an instant meal that’s perfect in hot weather.  No, it’s not exactly gourmet eating but I don’t care. 

When I’m at home, however, my go-to salad is quite different.  The basic ingredients are lettuce (gem or round, not iceberg) and lots of capers, with a dressing of lemon juice, olive oil and salt.  I’m quite happy just eating this, but I often supplement with whatever I’ve got in the fridge at the time – normally cherry tomatoes, cucumber, onion or spring onion and spinach.  If I’m feeling particularly adventurous (or have just been shopping and have a well-stocked fridge) then I like to add olives, avocado, green pepper and sunblush tomatoes. Herbs from the garden also help to pep things up – basil, mint and chives are all good.  I can eat bucketloads of this stuff (and frequently do!)

Back in the olden days, when we had nice weather (or Sunday, if you're feeling rather less melodramatic than I am right now) I did my food shopping.  For some people, summer starts with the first swallow; others, with the first barbecue.  For me, I know it's summer when I make the first tomato, basil and mozzarella salad of the year.  It's not worth making out of season because you need ripe tomatoes; in my opinion, it's a treat worth waiting for. 

With all the nice weather we had last week, it was time for the first barbecue of the year in our house. Not a record, April – our first barbecue last year was in February – but undoubtedly warmer than is usual for first barbecues. Deprived of bacon, burgers, and all the usual stand-bys the meat-eaters went for, I concocted some skewers out of Cauldron Lincolnshire veggie sausages, halloumi, pineapple and yellow pepper, and very nice they were too. I shall have to try hard to think of some further exciting options though, or I’m going to get very tired of barbecues before summer arrives…