This bold salad serves up summer on a plate: golden, zingy, refreshing, and plenty of fun.
Caramelised pineapple salad with spicy peanut dressing.
Glittering pomegranate seeds pretty up this otherwise classic version of Lebanese fattoush. This recipe includes a flatbread recipe, so you can try your hand at making it from scratch (a good life skill, and sure to impress) - or use store-bought flatbread.
Fattoush salad with purslane and radish with homemade flatbread. Source: China Squirrel
Crunchy and colourful, this rainbow slaw is packed with vegetables and strips of tender marinated beef and dressed with a lively Vietnamese-style dressing. Adding barley into the mix makes the salad heartier, and perfect for a light summer meal. 
Rainbow slaw, pearled barley and grilled beef. Source: Benito Martin
The salmon for this salad is marinated for 30 minutes in a mixture of fish sauce, sugar and garlic before being chargrilled until just medium-rare. The result is sweet and salty succulence.
Chargrilled salmon salad. Source: SBS Food
This salad is a contender for your new summer staple: a mixture of refreshing vegetables, aromatic Vietnamese herbs, and a creamy and tangy coconut milk-fish sauce dressing. Tapioca noodles are chewier than regular rice noodles, but rice noodles work as a substitute. Start the pickles 3 days before to allow time to marinate.
Tapioca noodle and vegetable salad with coconut milk. Source: Supplied
Not only is this salad colourful, but it's also a nutritional powerhouse; ideal for when you need a nourishing post-workout meal while keeping things light and fresh.
Adzuki bean, brown rice and edamame sushi salad with poached egg. Source: Murdoch Books
This salad makes a perfect packed lunch for summer, using ingredients that don't go soggy in the heat. It's full of protein too, which provides bulk energy to beat warm weather lethargy.
Rainbow capsicum salad. Source: SBS Food
You may be familiar with shabu shabu, a Japanese meal of thinly sliced pork swished through a pot of hot water or broth to cook it, then dabbed into a dipping sauce. Well, this is a popular summer version. Instead of being dipped and eaten hot, the cooked pork ('buta') is cooled and added to a fresh salad with a sesame dressing. 
Butashabu salad. Source: Steve Brown / Hachette Australia
Bitter endives give a replenishing kick in warm weather. Teaming them with a zesty orange dressing makes for a unique and colourful summer spread addition.
Charred radicchio salad with orange and walnut dressing. Source: Chris Chen
