Rainbow Salad Platter

Do you struggle to get your children to eat salad? It used to be a real problem for us – while I could easily live off salad, my children weren’t keen; other than happily wolfing down bowls of cucumber or perhaps the odd carrot, salads lay sadly ignored on the side of the plate. This salad platter changed all that – effectively a rainbow themed plate of yummy salad style ingredients to help yourself to, accompanied up a classic French dressing – they both dived back in for seconds. Result! Besides, it does look appealing and there is something nice about taking what you please.

Think of this platter as more of a template rather than a recipe – as long as you have all the colours accounted for, and I’m a great believer that food should be colourful, with a central starch then you’re good to go!

Here are a few suggestions:

White centre – rice, couscous, boiled new potatoes, pasta, quinoa,
Red- tomatoes, red pepper
Orange – orange pepper, carrots, roasted squash
Yellow – corn, yellow pepper, roasted yellow courgettes
Green – lettuce leaves, avocado, cucumber, green beans
Blue – this one is a bit tricky! – purple sprouting broccoli, blueberries
Indigo – red cabbage, olives
Violet – beet root, dark red salad leaves, olives

For the dressing:

1 tbsp vinegar
1 tsp mustard
3 tbsp olive oil
Salt, pepper and a pinch of salt