Summer Salads

I have already confessed to a love of summer salads (especially those involving fruit), and a friend of mine has piped up to say that she, too, finds something alluring about the fruit-vegetable-protein combination. Lorraine has particular reason to seek solace in salads since she is currently living in Oman, and even as a native Trinidadian she finds the heat unbearable and turning on the oven unthinkable. It probably doesn't help that she is 5 months pregnant and already running around after a toddler.

Like salad-manna from heaven, yesterday's Observer Food Monthly was positively bursting with summer-friendly dishes (shame the British weather isn't currently bursting with the same sun-shining ebullience). Nigel Slater writes about an almost-carpaccio of beef with mint and mustard, and cold noodles with cucumber, pumpkin seeds, and lime (and just a hint of chilli). The pair behind the wonderful Moro share some mezze dishes and a very intriguing-sounding raw beetroot salad with pistachio sauce (in anyone else's hands I'd be dubious, but their recipes are excellent). To round it off, there are traditional middle eastern mezze and salads listed as well.

So either for Lorraine, who has real reason to eat light and not turn the oven on, or us in Britain, who just want to pretend we're experiencing summer - enjoy.