Leaves

Our saviour from overeating, salad is both food and delicious medicine. When I want salad, it is a need like nothing else; I have to have it now.

Whether you like the grown-up bitter tastes of endive, frisée and trevise, or the sweet and joyful nature of butterhead and lamb’s lettuce, salad is gently nurturing, like the mother missed and found.

A salad can be straightforwardly simple and cleansing, or a wild forest in a bowl, hiding the unexpected anchovy or sly piece of bacon. And vinaigrette: when was a sauce so suited to its host? There is something about salad and dressing - more than chicken and gravy, or cauliflower and cheese sauce - that goes together.