Boost nutrition intake with salads

Easy-to-prepare summer salads can help you feel cool in the soaring temperatures, suggest chefs, who recommend nutritious and light preparations to beat the heat.

Two chefs share recipes of summer salads.

"You can put vegetables or meat of your choice (in your salad). A well-constituted salad has Vitamin C, Vitamin K and Vitamin A. All the nutrients help to increase your immunity and fight diseases," executive sous chef Danish Ashraf at Renaissance Mumbai Convention Centre Hotel, told IANS.

He suggests something as light as a Mixed Leaf Salad.

"Wash and clean lettuce and basil and then put them in cold water for five minutes. Drain out the water and reserve them in a bowl. Then take clean cherry tomatoes and cut them in half. Apple also needs to be sliced," he said.

For this salad's dressing, Ashraf advised to whisk olive oil, mustard and honey together. "Then add salt and crushed black pepper, and adjust seasoning according to taste," he added.

In the end, combine lettuce, cherry tomatoes and apple in a basin, and then add dressing and toss gently. "Add toasted walnut to it and serve cold," he added.

Chef Dinesh Kapri, executive assistant manager at Park Plaza in Gurgaon, shares an interesting way to use raw papaya in a salad preparation.

For this, you need grated raw papaya, thinly sliced tomato, finely sliced cow pea or lobhia, crushed green chillies, crushed roasted peanuts, sugar, tamarind pulp, chilli powder, soy sauce, lemon juice, chopped coriander and salt to taste.

"Toss all ingredients together and make sure you do it at least an hour before serving chilled. This way you can enjoy all the flavours," said Kapri.