Herbs for summer salads – ideas for some obvious and less obvious herbs for you to grow and eat.
Are you like me, as soon as there’s any sign of a sunny day you fancy fresh salad for lunch? Salads regularly contain leafy plants such as the many lettuce varieties, red oak leaf and cos lettuce for example, which you may already be growing in your garden or as baby salad leaves. But have you thought of trying some of leafy herbs – or herb leaves – as an addition to your mixed salad leaf bowl?
Herbs for summer salads need to be freshly picked to be at their tastiest. So make the most of those growing in your allotment, garden, or window box. Growing your own herbs for summer salads is very satisfying.
But which herbs for summer salads are easy to grow? I’ve come up with a few favourites and then a few more just to stretch your taste buds a little.
Herbs for Summer Salads
These are all easy to grow in your own garden. Some are suitable for growing in pots too, which is useful if your soil is the wrong pH, you have a courtyard garden or balcony.
Salad Rocket
Salad Rocket, Eruca vesicaria, E sativa, arugula, is a frequent addition to those bags of mixed salad that you can buy. An annual herb, it is easy to grow from seed, or to buy as a small plant and grow on. Its peppery leaves add extra flavour. When you grow your own, you can pick the leaves when young, and slightly milder in taste, or wait until they develop their full flavour.
Whilst leaves, flowers and seeds are all edible, salad rocket should not be confused with sweet rocket, Hesperis matronalis, which is grown for its sweetly scented flowers (which are edible too as it happens).
Sorrel
Sorrel, Rumex acetosa, garden sorrel, is a hardy perennial which is easy to grow. Some people may confuse it with the dock plant, Rumex obtusifolius, to which it is related. Although the young leaves of dock are edible, sorrel has the superior flavour. I also like the look of young bloody sorrel, red-veined sorrel in salads, to add a bit of colour along with the flavour.
It should be noted that eating sorrel (or dock) in large quantities is not a good idea due to the levels of oxalic acid in the leaves.
Nevertheless, the raw young leaves Rumex acetosa add a lemony tang to salads, just as the more mature leaves add flavour to soups and casseroles.
Culinary Herbs for Summer Salads
What about the herbs growing in your garden that you may not have thought were edible in the first place? Or at least, although you knew of them as culinary herbs to be added as seasoning to stir fries and stews you wouldn’t think to add them to your salad. Many of the leaves of these same herb plants are also good eaten raw in a salad.
One of the things to remember is that if you’re used to the somewhat bland soporific lettuce, adding too many herbs can give your taste buds a bit of a shock! Initially try just a few of one herb, then gradually add different herbs to blend the flavours together.
Also remember that if you add salad dressing that can affect the taste of the herb. I would suggest trying herbs for summer salads without dressing for a first bite or two, and then add salad dressing slowly to taste. Personally I like to add less complex seasonings when herbs form a major part of a salad. The aromatic leaves themselves add much to the taste experience.
We’ll look at three more familiar herbs for summer salads first. All three are annual herbs, so if you’re growing them, would need to be sown from seed each spring.
Coriander
The leaves of Coriander, Coriandrum sativum, also known as cilantro and Chinese parsley, will be familiar as a component of many a stir fry. I will cheerfully pick and munch on a few coriander leaves as I walk past this tall, feathery annual. However, I do appreciate that some people find the taste a bit ‘soapy’; if you’re one of those people then probably not adding it to your summer salad is the better idea! For the rest of us, the slightly sweet, faintly parsley like flavour is a gentle addition to salads.
Parsley
Parsley, Petrosilum crispum, and even more so the Italian, flat leaved variety, Petroselinum crispum var. neapolitanum, can be a surprisingly strong flavour when eaten raw. If you haven’t eaten raw parsley before, try the curly leaved variety first. A spray of young leaves, chopped small and mixed in well to the other ingredients lift a salad without overpowering it. Sowing some parsley seeds in August should give you a crop to use overwinter as it is tolerant of lower temperatures. Warm winter salads with fresh parsley, roast chicken and some pak choi sound rather tasty!
Basil
Basil, Ocimum basilicum, the essential element in pesto, is another easily grown and easily purchased herb that lends itself to being eaten raw in salads. As you might expect, a drizzle of balsamic vinegar over basil leaves makes a delicious combination. See blog link below for the many different flavours of basil you could grow.
The Sage Family – Salvia
Evergreen herbs also provide us with salad leaves, and one in particular you may not have thought of adding to your salads. The sage family – Salvia – comprises herbaceous perennials, tender perennials, deciduous shrubs and evergreen shrubs. Salvias also offer us an interesting change of taste, away from the more obvious leafy, herby experience.
Common Sage
Salvia officinalis, the common, soft green leaved shrub we know well as a culinary herb to add to casseroles has a very strong scent and flavour which could easily be overpowering in a salad comprising of edible leaves. However, using just a couple of leaves, chopped finely, makes a pleasant change to the taste of a leafy salad.
Pineapple Sage
However, Pineapple sage. Salvia elegans, Salvia splendens, is a stunning garden plant with bright red (edible!) flowers and pineapple scented and tasting foliage. Really. Honest. The soft texture of the leaves may not appeal to everyone in a salad, so chop them small to begin with. But the flavour will confuse and confound those people who have not come across it before – and if there’s a salad dressing they may assume that’s the source of the flavour.
You will probably need to grow this one, as it’s unlikely that you’ll find leaves in standard supermarkets. Pineapple sage grows happily in a pot; which means you can shelter it from frost over winter, as it can be a bit tender. Given frost protection it’ll be so happy, you’ll be changing it to a bigger pot in the spring!
Blackcurrant Sage
Another sage whose leaves are a welcome addition to salads, pimms, elderflower lemonade and life generally is Blackcurrant sage, Salvia microphylla. I admit that blackcurrant sage is a favourite semi evergreen shrub that I like to add to planting plans and garden designs as well as to salads. Its carmine pink flowers bloom from late April through to the end of November, more enthusiastically if you dead-head, but it will flower for a long time even if you don’t. And both leaves and flowers are edible, in salads, cool drinks, tisanes, herb teas and more.
Now you have a few ideas for herbs for summer salads, suggestions that I certainly enjoy eating – and growing – in my garden, I hope you’ll enjoy them too!
If you would like help with growing herbs in your garden, do get in touch. Plews is able to offer you Garden Design or Planting Design, Gardening Lessons, Garden Consultancy Visit, to suit your needs. Please check out relevant pages on the website for more details
And for further gardening advice and inspiration, check out Plews Potting Shed blogs, including the selection below – You could come and find us on Instagram and Facebook too!
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