Warm Quinoa, Sorana Bean and Roasted Vegetable Salad

I am a big fan of warm salads; I like how, thanks to the heat, the ingredients beautifully soak up the dressing and really get to interact with each other. The beans I used in this salad are of the Sorana variety: you may have not heard of them, but they are some kind of celebrity in the pulse world :-) Their skin is wafer-thin and their flesh really buttery; they are only cultivated on the dry river bed of the Pescia stream in Tuscany, and as a result quite expensive and tricky to get hold of. If you are not as lucky as to have an aunt that lives near the Pescia stream and gives you these fine beans as a gift when she comes to visit, then feel free to substitute the latter with more widely available cannellini.

Moroccan Chickpea & Roasted Carrot Salad

Here I present you with another lunch-box salad, this time of Moroccan inspiration. The key to this salad is the use of spices and chopped herbs, which turn a few simple ingredients - chickpeas, tomatoes, carrots and cous cous - into something that will make you say "wow!" after the first forkful. Try it, you won't be disappointed!

Mexican Chicken Salad

I have a love affair with authentic Mexican food. It's such a colourful, fresh, vibrant cuisine, miles away from the heavy, starchy Tex-Mex dishes that have been passed off as Mexican fare to us Europeans. Sadly for me, I have never had the pleasure to visit Mexico (yet!), but I had some pretty amazing authentic Mexican meals in California and haven't looked back since. I am happy to say that thanks to pioneers such as Thomasina Miers, this cuisine is becoming slowly but steadily more and more popular in the UK. I am yet to find a Mexican restaurant here in Brussels, so while I wait for one to open up, I have come up with the recipe for this zingy chicken salad that packs a punch!

Pesto, Roasted Tomato & Mushroom Pasta Salad

This is an example of how to employ the freshly made pesto of my previous post. This summery pasta salad is best served at room temperature; a quality that makes it great lunch box filler, bursting with flavour and goodness. You'll make all your colleagues with their fridge cold, packaged ham and cheese sandwiches green with envy :-)

Crab, Smoked Paprika & Lime Crostini

This crostino makes a great starter or light lunch, and it is a nice change from the usual mayo-lemon-crab combination. The smoked paprika works perfectly with the "limey" mayo, encasing the crab in a creamy, rich sauce, the whole thing sitting on a bed of crunchy bread and fresh salad leaves.

Warm Goat's Cheese, Black Truffle and Walnut Salad

This is a lovely, easy-peasy starter that carries a whiff of Autumn. I appreciate truffle is quite expensive and not that easy to get hold of, so if you don't have any you can substitute it with truffle-infused oil or leave it out altogether, and use walnut oil for the dressing instead.

Octopus, Potato & Roasted Tomato Salad

Octopus, what a delicacy! If you have never tried it, do it at the first occasion as you do not know what you have been missing until now; if you are too squeamish to do so...well, shame on you :-) These creatures are extremely fascinating, and I have often admired them under water through the lenses of my snorkelling mask, lurking amongst the rocks of some cliff in the Mediterranean sea, waiting patiently for their prey to swim within reach of their tentacles. I also find them equally captivating on my plate, with their tender, delicate but oh so flavoursome flesh. If you cook octopus slowly and for long enough, you'll find there is no need to beat it about with a meat hammer or such to tenderise it, so it is also rather easy to prepare. Here's a recipe for a tasty summer salad.