Top Ten Salad Recipes

No, wait! Don't go! It's far too hot to cook. It's too hot to do anything. Except wilt. Salad will save you. Or ice cream. Ice cream will save you as well. Once you've finished with our top ten salad recipes (and our favourite dressing recipes), have a look at our top ten ice cream and sorbet recipes as well. If you ended with our summer cocktail recipes, you've got a great summer evening with no effort at all.

it would be remiss to have a salad round up without the classics - try our colourful coleslaw, or herby potato salad (picture at the top of the feature, looking like something we want to get all over our faces).

Beans, avocado, peppers. This Tex Mex bean salad is perfect for using up bits and bobs in the fridge. And it's fabulous for lunch. Avocado is good for the brain. Alas, chips are not.

Grilled peaches and goats cheese go together perfectly. Want more cheese? This chickpea, orange, feta and mint salad is a refreshing side dish.

This Mediterranean buckwheat salad is full of healthy things and super foods and buckwheat is great for you gluten free folk. If you're after more wheats, kissir uses bulgher wheat. Cous cous also works brilliantly to bulk up a salad - no one wants a plate of leaves and nothing else.

This chicken noodle salad is gluten free, but everyone will want some tolerances or otherwise. Don't forgot our chicken and carrot salad, inspired by Thai and Asian flavours.

Panzanella is basically a bread salad - what could be more brilliant? Fattoush comes a very close second.

Seafood is such a good choice in summer. Try our prawn and avocado salad, or for a spicier kick our crayfish, samphire and chilli salad is the perfect crowd pleaser. Take some of these to those BBQs instead of yet another pack of sausages and you'll be very popular indeed.

Want more recipe inspiration? Check out the rest of our top ten recipe compilations.