Spicy Cucumber salad

Ingredients to serve 2 people

• One cucumber
• ½ of a large onion, or 3 or 4 spring onions
• ½ red chilli or a generous sprinkle of chilli flakesjuice of a lime
• 2 tablespoons of soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon water
• ½ teaspoon of sugar or a few drops of liquid sweetener if you prefer

1) Slice the cucumber and cut into small chunks. Peel and de-seed first if you prefer.

2) Finely dice the onion, or cut spring onion into small slivers.

3) De-seed and thinly slice the chilli

4) Combine all these ingredients in a bowl and add the lime, soy sauce and sugar or sweetener. Mix well.

5) Chill in the fridge until ready to serve.

Obviously, this is a vegetarian recipe, but if you are not vegetarian, you can add 1 tbsp of Thai Fish Sauce for a different flavour. If you can't find fresh red chillies, buy the dried chilli flakes. These are readily available in the supermarkets in sachets, or sometimes in a mixed pepper grinding mill. I confess I like a whole fresh chilli on my salad, but don´t try it unless you have the fire brigade on stand by! It´s HOT!

Mango & Strawberry salad

Serves 2

• This salad has an unusual mix of tastes. Make sure the mango and the strawberries are very ripe.
• 100g strawberries
• ½ cucumber, peeled and de-seeded
• ½ ripe mango peeled and cut into small chunks
• 1 tbsp fresh mint
• choppedjuice of ½ lime
• 1 head of chicory or cos lettuce
• Place the chicory leaves or cos lettuce on a plate.

Combine all other ingredients in a bowl. Add a sprinkle of black pepper if you like.Spoon over the salad leaves and serve. It's as easy as that! Now, who said salads had to be boring??