I have been noticing lots of bright salad ideas on the web lately. I think everybody, on the northern hemisphere at least, is longing for the light green freshness of early spring. With my camellia already in bloom (which is something to worry rather than be cheerful about to be honest) I think spring will be here before you can say Easter egg. But gloomy future world temperature rocketing scenarios aside, an healthy salad with something sweet, savoury and crunchy is something I get excited about no matter what the weather. This is what we came up with this week:

Using mache (Valerianella locusta, also called corn salad, lamb’s lettuce, field salad, field lettuce) as a base, we than build on that with very thinly shaved pear, sun blushed and fresh date tomatoes, (garlic) sprouts and fresh feta cheese. And finally Ed’s wonderful ‘you should really try this’, invention: pecans covered in lavender honey. For this you should first dry roast the pecans in a pan. While still hot, mix in a bowl with the lavender honey and place in the freezer for 5 minutes to cool. Delicious! You can make a simple dressing to go with this salad, if you like.

The beauty of food like this is you’ve got your fruit, vegetables, the right fats as well as proteins and carbohydrates and important vitamins and minerals, all working together. And afterwards you feel satisfied but not too full or blown up or whatever it is people call it when they eat too much. In recent years we have truly discovered the benefits of the Japanese ‘Hara Hachi Bu’, eating until you are 80% full. Eat slowly and discover the moment when food still tastes good but you know you have eaten enough. At first it’s hard (especially when really hungry, so make sure you never are) but over time you will learn and your body will be thankful.

Note: ‘The Okinawan cultural habit of calorie control called hara hachi bu, which means eat only until you are 80% full, plays a role as well as their habit of eating an antioxidant rich plant-based diet. Stopping at 80% capacity is actually a very good strategy to avoid obesity without going hungry because the stomach’s stretch receptors take about 20 minutes to tell the body that how full it really is and 20 minutes after stopping you will really feel full.’ Read more on okinawa-diet.com