Rabbit food.

  Unless you've been in a coma, it will come as no surprise that we're in the middle of winter and that despite the appearance of the sun today, it's still officially miserable, particularly if you're an old scroat like me. Normally this is a great excuse to lock the door, eat chocolate biscuits and sulk until late may but that isn't going to help in the long term, you can't put your health on hold.

  It may come as a surprise that one of the nutrients we all need from our food is water. Though dunking your biscuits in a cup of tea will give you a good source of water, it's not sustainable no matter how much you argue. A lot of vegetables, especially salad are great sources of water so I'm here today to rave about the benefits.

  Above is the colourful fireworks display of a salad that was tonight's supper. As you can see, it's a pile of decimated vegetables which means no cooking, just cutting. For the record, it was preceded by a nice hot bowl of butternut squash soup so I did get something warm and wintry inside me but even during the long, cold nights I still have the occasional salad.

  Unsure about how to create a salad? No problem, here's a handy guide. It's mainly about shopping so when you're next filling your basket, either grab a head of lettuce or a bag of leaves that you like the look of, this will be the base. Next on the list is whatever you fancy to keep the leaves company and can include the obvious things like cucumber and tomato but could also include, spring onions, peppers, beetroot, avocado, apples. raisins, celery, carrots, (which are lovely grated), nuts and seeds and even sprouted grains which are becoming a more common sight.

  Once you've chopped or sliced a bit of what you fancy, I'd recommend a splash of dressing. You can either make up a bottle of the stuff so you've always got some or just drizzle a bit of oil and vinegar on to keep things simple. I generally keep at least one bottle of fancy olive oil and a couple of nice vinegars for just this occasion. If you don't know if it's fancy, just look at the price. That's all about salad for today and if you're feeling miserable and unsatisfied after a lovely big plate of salad, you can always wash it down with a nice mug of tea and a couple of biscuits. Just to be sure.

Kirk out

RevoltingFood.com