All-time favourite chopped salad with honey dressing

This is without question the salad I make the most at home, but it recently dawned on me that I’d never written down the recipe. Perhaps it feels too simple. But if the mark of a good recipe is how often you make it, then this would be top spot. This chopped salad acts as a base to which other things can be added: avocado, feta, other crunchy veg, peppers, raw beetroot (add at the end unless you want a pink salad), peas or green beans.

Serves 4

2 carrots, peeled
½ cucumber
6 radishes
100g seeds, toasted (I use a mix of pumpkin, sunflower and poppy)
4 spring onions
12 cherry tomatoes – a mix of colours
2 little gem lettuces
A few sprigs of mint, leaves picked
A few sprigs of basil, leaves picked

For the dressing
½ tsp mustard
½ tsp runny honey or maple syrup
1 splash red-wine vinegar
1 big splash extra-virgin olive oil
Salt and black pepper

Get out your biggest chopping board: everything is going to be prepped and dressed on this. Put the hardest ingredients on the board first – the carrot, cucumber and radishes – roughly chop, then sprinkle the seeds on top.

Next chop the spring onion, tomatoes, little gem and mint leaves all together using a rocking motion, and sweep around the board with your knife until it is all mixed.

Make the dressing in a bowl or jam jar, pour over the salad and mix up again with your knife. Season and tip into a big bowl.