It’s amazing how a bit of warm weather can get you more motivated in the kitchen. Suddenly, you feel like salad isn’t just something sitting limply on the side of a hot dinner, a token stab at something crunchy with vitamins. The sunshine seeps into your brain, perceptions shift and, ta da!, salad is the main course.

Long may it continue

Prawn and cannellini bean salad from Tossed – 200 fast, fresh and fabulous salads

Serves 4

You’ll need:

400g can cannellini beans
2 red peppers, roasted
300g green beans
1/2 loaf day-old ciabatta or other crusty bread
1 large garlic clove, finely chopped
1kg raw prawns, peeled and deveined
1 large handful flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Lemon and caper dressing
3 tablespoons lemon juice
3 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons capers, rinsed, drained and chopped
1 teaspoon sugar, optional

1. Rinse the cannellini beans and place in a large serving bowl.

2. Cut the roasted peppers into strips and add to the beans.

3. Bring a saucepan of lightl salted water to the boil, add the green beans and blanch until bright green and just tender – about two to three minutes. Drain and add to the serving bowl.

4. Put all the lemon and caper dressing ingredients in a screw-top jar and shake well. Season and set aside.

5. Cut the bread into six slices, then cut each slice into quarters. Heat three tablespoons of olive oil in a frying pan and fry the slices of bread over a medium heat for a minute or two on each side until golden. Remove.

6. Heat the remaining oil in the frying pan, add the garlic and prawns, and cook for two to three minutes or until the prawns turn opaque. Toss the prawns through the salad with the dressing, toasted bread and parsley, then serve.

Cook’s notes

No cannellini beans in the house, so I went with borlotti instead.

I didn’t have 1kg of prawns hanging around either but using less wasn’t a problem, there’s just so much good stuff in this salad to keep you occupied.

I have no idea why I followed that bit about frying the bread - you know what it’s like when you use a recipe for the first time - you follow it to the letter because you might learn something new… I should have just cooked up some chunky garlicky croutons at the same time as roasting the peppers – that’s definitely what I’ll do next time around

I’m thinking this would be good picnic food. Mind you, I’m thinking everything would be good picnic food after being cooped up in the house for so long!