Melon, Tomato, Mint & Prosciutto Salad

If you were to ask any of my work colleagues to describe me in one word, they'd probably say 'salad'! I eat salad everyday for lunch, always making it myself, and always mixing up the ingredients that goes into them. For some reason, I'm just not that much of a fan of sandwiches, and salads are far more colourful and healthy. They also happen to be pretty easy to make, and you can make large quantities in one go, to serve up throughout the week. This is my hack to making lunch in advance! I tend to find a new recipe on Sunday, pop out to buy the ingredients and then spend an hour making up a large batch, at least 4-6 servings to use throughout the week. Stew also has the same lunch, so between us the cost is low and you use up all of the ingredients, rather than having some left over that inevitably goes out of date in the fridge before you next use it.My one tip would be to only combine the dry ingredients, and add any wet ingredients such as tomatoes, cucumber and the dressing until the morning of when you come to dish it up to take to work. This helps things stay fresh and for the salad to not get too infused with the flavours from the dressing - they could end up a little over-powering.This recipe involves a lot of colour and a lot of flavour. To get the best out of this dish, the melon needs to be ripe, the mint needs to be fresh, and the tomatoes need to be good - not the cheapest ones you can find. I opted for a mix of yellow and red cherry tomatoes off the vine. They were perfectly ripe and really brought this dish together.To make this dish vegan, simply remove the prosciutto.Ingredients (serves 4):

• 300g different coloured cherry tomatoes, halved
• 1/2 cantaloupe melon, segmented and cut into chunks
• 5 round slices of cucumber, quartered
• 2 celery sticks, sliced
• 5 slices prosciutto
• 1 handful fresh mint, roughly chopped
• Spinach
• Rocket

For the dressing:

• 1 1/2 tbsp red wine vinegar
• 3 tbsp olive oil
• 1 tsp honey

Method:

1. To make the dressing, whisk all the ingredients together in a bowl and set aside.
2. Toss the tomatoes, melon, cucumber and celery together in a bowl with a little dressing, some sea salt and black pepper.
3. Add a few handfuls of spinach and rocket, and the chopped mint, tossing again. (Leaving a little mint to garnish)
4. Serve in a large bowl and tear the prosciutto over top. Drizzle with extra dressing, scatter with the remaining mint and serve.