Five of the best and easiest ways to jazz up your salad

1. Experiment with texture

Creating a salad with a beautiful blend of creamy and crunchy textures can truly amplify your salad-eating experience from something ordinary to something extraordinary. For soft textures with a delicate taste, choose feta cheese, couscous, quinoa, or sliced kalamata olives. For crunchy textures with sharp flavour, choose baked kale leaves, antioxidant-rich red cabbage, sprigs of watercress, sliced red onion, or julienned carrots. For a creamy finish, opt for sliced or chopped avocado, lashes of Greek yogurt, or a dash of ranch dressing.

2. Up the sweetness with some fruit

Freshly sliced or grilled fruit can take your salad up a notch or two. Grilled peaches, apricots, or slices of watermelon work wonderfully in a summer salad, along with some ricotta, feta, or goat cheese. Adding some segments of orange, mandarin, grapefruit or pomelo with the flesh removed can also work well, as can raspberries, chopped strawberries, or apple.

3. Change up your dressings

For salads with avocado, citrus-based dressings work extra well to bring out the creaminess of the fruit. Choose lime juice, a mixture of lemon juice and olive oil, or even balsamic vinegar with a dash of lemon juice for this type of salad. Raspberry vinaigrette, tahini, or honey mustard dressing, can definitely make your salads taste a whole lot more exciting. Choosing oils mixed with lemon juice, such as flaxseed oil, avocado oil, chili oil, or classic olive oil, can also work exceptionally well in salads.

4. Add herbs and spices

Don't just settle for salt and pepper as a seasoning in your salad - experiment with other herbs and spices that'll pack a punch. Sumac, dill, thyme, rosemary, za'atar, chili flakes, basil, paprika, parsley...the list goes on. Don't be afraid to use spices in your salad!

5. Finish with a crisp, crunch topping

Top your salad with some added crunch with pumpkin seeds, flaxseeds, chia seeds, croutons, bits of noodles, walnuts, almonds, or even chunks of tortilla or Lebanese bread fried in olive oil until golden brown and crispy.