When it's too hot to cook, I make this salad

It’s been pretty hot in the UK, so I’ve been doing a lot less cooking and a lot more assembling meals. Salads like this have been on heavy rotation.

If you’ve read my cookbook, you’ll know that when I was growing up my mom worked for Nancy Silverton at La Brea Bakery. Beyond her incredible bread, one of the dishes Nancy became known for was her chopped salad - something my mom would often make her own version of, or bring home from the restaurant. It’s one of the first meals my mom taught me to make, and I love that I’m still craving it all these years later.

I like to add some sort of charred vegetable, like broccoli or radishes, and lately I’ve really been enjoying it with charred chickpeas. They take on that summer barbecue flavour while only cooking very lightly. If you don’t have a gas hob, you can roast them in the oven or crisp them up under the grill (broiler) instead.

recipe below