9 zingy salads to pep up your day

Fresh fruit in savoury salads is the absolute best way to improve what would otherwise be a bowl of leaves and cherry toms. Our favourite? Oranges – they look like tiny glowing gems and add a zingy pop of juicy flavour that makes cucumber look like the dullest member of the salad squad.

Here’s how to serve the best orange salads – just use an easy peeler variety for those days you need a low-effort-but-all-the-taste-kinda dish.

1. Halloumi kebabs with a freekeh, orange and walnut salad

Salty halloumi is balanced with sweet orange in these fab kebabs. Cook on a hot griddle pan if you can’t get to the barbecue.

2. Pan-fried mackerel with kale, beetroot and blood orange salad

Blood orange is the citrus salad king. It’s incredibly sweet and the juicy red fruit will make even the saddest salads exciting.

3. Citrus grilled seabass with new potato and fennel salad

Now there's a way to make whole grilled fish look untraditionally appetising. Those slices of blistered, smoky orange will taste incredible, too.

4. Glazed carrots with orange and thyme

Pairing foods of the same colour so that a salad is the same glorious shade may actually be our new favourite game. Sweet carrots and zingy orange are perfect for it.

5. Red onion, orange and pomegranate salad

Possibly the freshest salad you’ll ever taste. Serve with leftover roast chicken or to cut through a rich pork or beef curry.

5. Red rice with chicken and burnt blood orange

There’s that burnt blood orange again – this time it’s jazzing up a red rice, quinoa and chicken salad. You’ll want to make enough for your packed lunch tomorrow.

6. Zesty duck salad

A fancy salad. Baby leaves make up the base of a really indulgent, warm dish with cocktail beetroot. The best part? The orange is cooked in duck fat. Gorgeous.

7. Spiced chicken butternut couscous

It’s not just the flesh of an orange that’ll transform your salads – this recipe calls for the freshly squeezed juice. That sweetness with the spiced chicken and refreshing mint leaves is perfection.

8. Citrus fruit salad with spiced syrup

We couldn't discuss the brilliance of orange salads without including this one for dessert. Far from that dull, soggy fruit salad of school dinners past, this one's smothered in homemade spiced syrup and crunchy green pistachios. It's ready in mere minutes, too.