Salads

A simple green salad may be served either instead of or as well as vegetables. When it’s eaten just after a main course it also has the magical effect of making you feel less full – which means you have room for pudding!

It is sometimes difficult to get a plain green salad in a restaurant. Often you will be given a mixed salad with peppers, tomatoes, cucumbers, etc. and, although there are many variations on the green salad theme, it should really only be made up of different kinds of lettuce and salad leaves. The variety of lettuces one can buy in the shops has improved enormously. Until recently, the only one that was widely available was the soft butterhead lettuce, but now it is possible to find Chinese leaves, iceberg and radicchio, as well as several ‘frizzy’ varieties, such as endive and the lovely, frilly, bronze-tinted lollo rosso.