One of our favourite salads to make is a large leafy salad.  We purchase different types and colour salad leaves and then you can basically do anything on top of it.

Of course one of our main goals when preparing a salad is to make it as beautiful as possible.  We normally use a flat serving plate so that all the elements of the salad can be appreciated and all the guests can help themselves to all the different ingredients.

Peel and cut the butternut into pieces.  Not too small as they do tend to reduce in size while roasting.  This of course is Jacques’s job as I do not have enough strength in my arms to cut through the larger pieces of butternut

Coat the butternut with olive oil and any spices that you prefer. More oil is better, we aren’t deep frying it but we are also not shy with the oil.  Salt is also important, you might get a nice color by adding paprika or cinnamon but if there is no or little salt the taste would be less pleasant that having just enough salt.

Spread them out in a single layer onto a baking dish and place them in the oven.  Make sure to stir them around on the dish every now and again to allow an even roast.  When they are soft but not mushy and have a nice brown colour remove them and allow to cool down.

In a pan melt butter and either honey or syrup.  Add the nuts and stir until all the nuts are covered in the butter.  Continue to stir around until the butter and syrup form a nice sticky coat over the nuts.  It is better to work on a lower flame so that you do not burn the nuts.  Once they are nice and sticky put them on a baking sheet and separate them as much as possible and allow to cool down.

Cut your red onions in nice thin slices.

Put the sunflower and pumpkin seeds into a pan over a low heat.  Stir or even better if you can toss them around in the pan until you can smell them roasting – remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Now to pack the salad.

Here you can either do a single layer or a double layer of all the ingredients.

Take your serving dish and cover the base of the dish with your assortment of salad leaves.  

Here you can be creative and pack the rest of the ingredients onto the salad leaves.  

Normally we leave the feta and seeds for last.

Mix all the ingredients for the dressing together.  Do not use too much vinegar, it is actually just there to allow your dressing to be a bit runny but not too runny for easier application.

Make sure that you taste your dressing before adding it to your salad.

We normally add the dressing just before serving it so that it doesn’t just run down the plate.

When adding the dressing it is important not to drown your salad.

With a salad the sky is the limit.   You can add and take away according to your taste. The trick is in the presentation and making sure that all your ingredients are nice and fresh.