Riverford Organic Farmers

Summer Salad
Guide

It’s salad season! Here are our tips for making and dressing a salad, plus a little guide to some of the leaves we’re growing this summer. We hope it helps you make brilliant salads all summer long.

In this Riverford guide...

How to create a show-stopping salad >

Making your own salad dressing >

About our salad leaves >

NEXT LEVEL LEAVES

Create a show-stopping summer salad

FLAVOUR

Reliable combos

Consider what works together in other dishes, like stir-fries or soups.

Opposites attract

Bold flavours need contrast. Bitterness is tempered by sharp flavours, and saltiness likes something sweet.

Green herbs and citrus add character to any salad.

Fragrance

ADDING YOUR VEG

Most things, except potatoes, can be used raw.

Raw

Cooked

Let cooked veg cool before adding to stop your leaves from wilting.

FINISHING TOUCHES

Toasted nuts, seeds and croutons bring crunch, while grains and pulses add bulk and bite.

Texture

Consider layering sliced veg to show their colours and shapes, and adding final flourishes on top.

Style

Explore all our salad recipes >

Building a salad dressing

Here’s the basic formula behind a good dressing. Try to stick to the 3:1 ratio of oil to acid, but feel free to play around with the flavours. For speed, pop it all in a jam jar and shake like crazy.

Miso & sesame

3 tbsp untoasted sesame oil,
1 tbsp rice vinegar, 2 tbsp white miso, 1 tsp soy sauce, lime juice to taste

E.g. olive oil, sunflower oil, vegetable oil, nut oils

3 parts oil

+

E.g. citrus juice, vinegar, buttermilk, yogurt

1 part acid

+

E.g. herbs, spices, nuts, garlic, honey, mustard, soy

Flavourings

A FEW OF OUR FAVOURITE DRESSINGS...

Tahini & cumin

3 tbsp tahini,
1 tbsp lemon juice,
1 tsp ground cumin,
hot water to thin, chopped garlic to taste

Green vinaigrette

3 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp cider vinegar,
1 tsp Dijon mustard,
1 tbsp chopped parsley,
1 tbsp chopped capers

Orange & honey

3 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp orange juice,
1 tsp Dijon mustard,
1 tsp runny honey,
toasted & chopped hazelnuts

Find more salad dressing recipes here >

+

+

3 tbsp untoasted sesame oil,
1 tbsp rice vinegar,
2 tbsp white miso,
1 tsp soy sauce,
lime juice to taste

3 tbsp olive oil,
1 tbsp orange juice,
1 tsp Dijon mustard,
1 tsp runny honey,
toasted & chopped hazelnuts

In summer, we move our salad leaves out of polytunnels and grow them in the great outdoors on our Devon farm. We grow many varieties, and pick a fresh mix each week, carefully balancing different colours, textures and flavours.

Here are some leaves you may find in our summer salad bags…

MILD LEAVES

Ruby chard

Picked early, before they'd need cooking.
Sweet, earthy leaves, and wonderfully crunchy young stalks.

Spinach

Mild, sweet, tender leaves. A great backbone to a salad, acting as a foil to stronger leaves.

MODERATE LEAVES

Pak choi

The stems are full of juice and crunch, and a hint of sweet bitterness means it brings taste as well as texture.

Mizuna

Long, narrow stalks with deeply serrated leaves. Tastes like mild rocket - peppery but fresh.

Komatsuna

Also known as Japanese mustard spinach. It's much like pak choi, with a mild, mustardy pungency.

STRONG LEAVES

Red Frills mustard

As the name suggests, it has a mustardy character, sweet and peppery.

Rocket

A distinctive peppery punch. It grows like a rocket too; we'll cut it two or three times through summer.

Fancy adding a bag of our mixed salad leaves to your order?

Shop mixed salad leaves

Feeling inspired? Visit our summer salad page for recipes, fresh organic ingredients, and more...

Visit our summer salad page

Highest rated national food brand

© 2021 Riverford Organic Farmers Ltd, Buckfastleigh, Devon, TQ11 0JU, UK. Registered in England No. 3731570. Privacy Policy and Terms and Conditions