Six ways to save money on . . . salad

publication date: Jun 9, 2008

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author/source: Fiona Beckett

At this time of year the price of salad veg should be falling. It is. But is that only because they’ve been kept artificially high? And you can still end up spending more than you need. Here’s how to make some significant savings.

Buy your leaves loose
Packet salads may be convenient but you certainly pay for them. A small bag of leaves will cost you about £1 - £1.25 in most supermarkets. A soft round lettuce (right) will cost roughly half of that or for the same price you could buy a large cos lettuce, full of flavour and crunch. I’ve just picked up one at my local greengrocer Redland Fruiterers for 99p and it weighed 465g - enough for 2-3 meals. Which brings me to my next point . . .

Shop at a greengrocer or market stall
Or at least check out the prices. I don’t think you’ll find they’re charging any more than your local supermarket for salad ingredients. They may well charge less. Whole cucumbers for example are 68p in my local greengrocer. They’re 72p at Sainsbury’s and Tesco. Spring onions are 59p as opposed to 64p (or 79p pre-packed). Small savings but they add up. Incidentally the massive saving that Tesco appears to be making on peppers, currently on sale for 35p each is because a few weeks ago they were selling them at the ridiculous price of 88p (and at one stage over £1) Cynical or what?

Ignore all that ‘vine-ripened’ twaddle
All tomatoes grow on vines and with tomatoes coming into season now  you shouldn’t have to pay a premium for a few stalks. Ordinary cherry tomatoes are currently on offer for 45p a 250g punnet or £1.80 a kilo at Tesco. 'On the vine' they’re 89p for 300g or £2.97 a kilo according to www.mysupermarket.co.uk. The ordinary ones might not taste quite as good but if you add a pinch of sugar to the dressing it will bring out their sweetness.

Ring the changes
It’s worth ringing the changes both with your salads and dressings (see below). You don’t always have to have lettuce, cucumber and tomato for example. You could have a tomato and onion salad, or a carrot and apple slaw. Add a few super-cheap cress leaves to your salad. Or grow your own sprouting seeds (see how here)

Switch to a cheaper oil - and vinegar
Being ultra-fashionable, olive oil - especially extra virgin olive oil - is invariably pricey. No reason why you shouldn’t buy it - it tastes good and it’s good for you - just make it stretch a bit further. For a basic French style salad dressing try this: mix a level teaspoon of Dijon mustard with a tablespoon of cider vinegar (20p cheaper than wine vinegar at Tesco) and season with salt and pepper. Whisk in 2 tablespoons of sunflower oil and 2 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil then, once the mixture has emulsified, whisk in a tablespoon of water. If you’re making a flavoured dressing such as a honey and mustard dressing you don’t need to use olive oil at all.

Store your salad carefully
Store salad leaves and any fresh herbs (excluding coriander) in plastic bags in the salad drawer ideally for no longer than 2-3 days (see the bbc website for further guidance) It’s better to leave them unwashed otherwise they’ll deteriorate more rapidly and wash them as you need them. Leave tomatoes outside the fridge so they continue to ripen.