Orchard Training Cookery Club - “nobody is choosing the salad!”

Oh, you won’t believe where that comment was made! It wasn’t at the Orchard Training Cookery Club, but at my local gym! Our gym manager, Anna, recently got a new role and went to a meeting where someone made that remark. It really got her riled up, and she wanted to chat with me to get my thoughts on it.

Life sometimes throws you a curveball, doesn’t it? You’re minding your own business, going about your day, when suddenly, you’re hit with a question that makes you stop and think. It’s like, “Wait a minute, is this really normal?” You make the assumption that everyone else does the same thing as you, and you haven’t even considered the possibility that there might be a different way. That’s exactly what happened to me when I had a conversation with Anna.

I’m somebody who does pick the salad, and so are my friends. We all know how important a healthy salad is. Now, I’m not saying we always love the salad option, but we eat it because we know it’s good for us. But here’s the thing, we’re grown-up ladies. However, we’re all at different stages of life,  Anna and the Personal Trainers at the gym are much younger – they have admitted that “salad isn’t the first thing on their minds when they’re at a barbecue.”

So, I got to thinking about salad! There are two salads that stand out in my mind as rememberable for all the wrong reasons.

When I was a kid, I spent some time in Europe, and let me tell you, salads are a big deal there, especially in the summer. They’re made with all sorts of delicious ingredients, and it’s a culinary delight!

One of our favourite family recipes was this chicken salad. It was made with cold rice, leftover roasted chicken, red and white grapes, diced apples, and sliced bananas. The dressing was a creamy curry mayo that tied all the flavours together.

Now, here’s the best part: you can make this salad in advance, except for the banana. You slice them just as it’s about to be served. Then, when you come home from a lovely day out, dinner is ready! We loved this salad, so much that we didn’t even need to call us twice when it was for dinner.

One summer, my nan was absolutely thrilled when she heard we were coming back to the UK for a summer holidays. She’d heard all about our favourite Chicken Salad and decided to make it for us when we arrived after our long 24-hour drive to her place. But guess what? For Nanny, the starting point for all salads was the lettuce, tomatoes, and cucumbers. If the salad did not have these three things it was not a salad!

Nanny proudly presented her dinner, and dad gave us a stern look across the table, clearly warning us not to say the wrong thing. She had created a unique fusion of hot roasted chicken, hot white rice, and small piles of grated apple, along with grapes, lettuce, tomatoes, cucumbers, and a peeled banana on the side. And to top it all off, she added salad cream.

We ate it, and then we pretended to love it. There was nothing wrong with the meal—the food was as delicious as ever, beautifully prepared. But it wasn’t our chicken salad. I guess the recipe got lost in translation somewhere along the English Travel!

One day, when Nanny’s dementia symptoms began to show, she made a salad. But instead of washing the lettuce in fresh water, she washed it with fabric conditioner. Thankfully, the Lenor scent warned us well in advance, and no one got poisoned. 

We’ve always grown our own salad leaves, beetroot, radish, spring onions, carrots, tomatoes, and cucumbers. Salad is a must-have in our meals, especially during the summer. So, when Anna and I were chatting, I couldn’t believe this quote: “nobody’s choosing the salad!”

I’ve been wondering why people aren’t opting for the salad, a lot this week. I asked a dear friend of mine who works with children, who’ve been referred by their GP due to their weight. Her consider reply was salads can cost more than a Big Mac to prepare! This idea was echoed by a friend who lives alone – salad is too expensive to buy for one person.

Did you know - sometimes the cost of veggies goes up and down? Well, it’s because of things like droughts that mess with how much and where they grow. Meat prices are usually pretty steady throughout the year. They don’t go up or down much, unlike fresh fruit and veggies.

Supply chains often are unable to cope with change in the weather. Then when the weather turns and the crop is delayed or the yield goes down the price goes up. When it is hot, more salad ingredients go to the supermarkets rather than the restaurants. The supply chain can’t change that quickly and there is some food waste.

Salads, in restaurants, are often seen as expensive due to a combination of factors including shelf life, labour costs for preparing ingredients, hidden costs like packaging and transportation. Additionally, restaurants may price salads higher to offset other costs like rent and utilities.  While some ingredients like lettuce may be inexpensive, they often include more costly ingredients like meat, cheese, fish and a dressing: all of which need different fridges to keep them in.

Why am I telling you all this? I thought it would be nice to prove either the person who said “nobody’s choosing the salad!” or me wrong. As part of our Design and Technology curriculum I would like to gather, together, as many of our favourite salad recipes and make a collective Salad Recipe collection for the Orchard Training Cookery Club.

To start things off - and as cherry season has just started here at the Orchard Training Garden Club – here is one of my favourite June salads. Made with beetroot leaves, beetroot, cherry tomatoes, spring onions and cherries. Served with brown rice and some roast chicken.

And Anna’s recipe: tomato, cucumber, spinach, gherkins and grilled steak mince.

I would like you to send me a photograph and a list of ingredients to go with it.