This is a brilliant store cupboard salad as it requires a limited number of fresh ingredients – and it’s also fab if you have guests and your fridge is full to bursting as you don’t need to loads of chilled produce!

I love this salad with the Freekeh and Quinoa Seed Salad as they complement each other so beautifully. This is certainly a go-to for BBQ’s and is also great side or filling with a baked sweet or regular potato. I love the creamy, salty feta but make it vegan by leaving this off and you will still have a delicious salad.

Couple of tips – I like to use the olive oil which the artichokes come in for the dressing and I buy a fig balsamic locally which has a beautiful sweetness and no colour. If you can’t get hold of this, use a straight forward balsamic instead. For convenience, I use the roasted red peppers in a jar, because they are lovely and soft and have a slightly sweet but sour tang too plus they come without any skin and the soft texture compliments the rest of the salad. If you have lots of red peppers you can always roast and remove the skins and seeds then slice. This salad looks best laid out on a platter but can of course be placed in a bowl.

I do love a slaw as it can make a simple dish really special – and bump up the vegetable content of your meal to boot. This Asian Slaw is fantastic for serving with a baked tofu burger, some marinated salmon or meats or as a side with some spring rolls. You can add cubes of tofu, prawns or cooked meats to it to eat it on it’s own and I also like to throw in some cooked black or wild rice for another texture and to make the meal more filling. It’s a fabulous ‘different’ edition to a buffet table too as it’s great for most diets.

The key to this slaw is the sauce, which needs time to mix before being added to the salad. So throw together the sauce earlier in the day or the night before – it only takes seconds to make – and dress just before serving. If you are happy to eat fish sauce then it adds another layer of flavour, but is equally good without it. To make this slaw a super-fast make I use a food processor to chop the veg using the attachment which makes it into little batons as I feel then you can taste the individual flavours more than when they are grated and it doesn’t get mushy at all. You can always shred by hand and course grate instead though if you would prefer.

Pomegranates are at their best right now and also readily available at a reasonable price – so there’s no reason not to incorporate them in your meals to give them a new fresh feel and a dazzling burst of red. That’s why this Pomegranate Slaw is the perfect dish to make this week.

As well as looking fabulous and serving as the perfect side to pretty much anything, it’s also fabulous value using carrots and white cabbage which are also in season too. I whipped this batch which served as a generous side for six for less than £2. It’s fab with burgers instead of fries, in a wrap with houmous, with a baked sweet potato, as part of a buffet, the possibly are endless.

It keeps brilliantly in the fridge for a few days so make it up and have a lunch or dinner at the ready. I used the julienne blade on my food processor for the cabbage and carrots so it can be prepared in under ten minutes. I can’t guarantee you won’t make a bit of a mess taking the seeds out of the pomegranate – or is that just me?