Homemade Caesar salad (with crispy lettuce)

England is not renowned for being (say like Californias) a nation of salad eaters. But that’s often because (a) soup is nicer when it’s raining and cold or (b) most salads in restaurants consist of a slice of limp lettuce, a stick of celery and a cherry tomato.

Learning to make your own salad is far better! And much tastier than the store-bought plastic bags of wishy-washy salad greens. They also are very expensive, compared to if you make your own.

Vegan Caesar salad (Full of Plants) combines crispy Romaine lettuce with herbed croutons, shallots in  a homemade creamy dressing.

You don’t need lots of tools to make good salad. Just a good chopping board and a quality knife, some fresh produce and a salad spinner (failing that, just use a tea towel to dry off your salad greens before serving with dressing).

Check medication before eating lots of leafy greens. Read more on food safety for people and pets.

For tinned ingredients – before recycling cans, rinse then pop ring-pulls back over holes. Then step on upper cans to pinch rims together (this stops wildlife getting accidentally trapped).

Unless you have food waste bins, just bin pepper and allium scraps (onion, leeks, garlic, shallot, chives) and citrus/tomato/rhubarb scraps. To avoid acids harming compost creatures.

Only made enough salad to last a day or two, keeping leftovers in a covered container in the fridge. Only adding dressing when you serve.

If you want, add some Hampshire watercress!

Watercress is one of England’s native salad greens, and grows mostly in Dorset and Hampshire (where there is even a watercress festival!) It’s quite peppery and most people prefer it blended with other greens.

One bag of watercress is sold each second in England. It’s been popular since Roman times, when it was thought to cure everything from baldness to insanity!

Best enjoyed from April to September, choose strong green leaves for freshness and only wash and shake dry before use. Store in the fridge (ideally in water) and eat within a couple of days.