When the weather is hot, I, like many people, don't fancy cooking, so I often opt for a salad. Simply chopping things up and throwing them into a bowl is a quick and easy way to make a meal. Plus, I don't have to stand over a hot stove when I am already boiling during a British heatwave. So, I made a lovely green salad for lunch this week.

While it looked completely bland, like a bowl simply full of flavourless leaves, it actually tasted amazing with two ingredients I included. The base of my salad was spinach. Although it doesn't taste of much, it gives a salad a great crunch and, of course, it is a great source of fibre. While that bulked up the salad, it was two simple ingredients I added to it that really made the difference. Just because you are eating a bowl of greens doesn't mean you have to sacrifice flavour. The two game-changing ingredients I put into my green salads are fresh basil leaves and lime juice.

Here are the ingredients I used to make a big, hearty salad that tasted incredible:

• 120g spinach
• 1 chopped spring onion
• 1 small green bell pepper
• 15g fresh basil, unchopped
• 15g chopped coriander
• 130g chopped cucumber
• 40g jarred pickled, diced
• 1 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Juice of half a lime

The spring onion, pickles and salt and pepper really helped to improve the flavour of what could have been a really boring salad. But when I was eating it, it was the basil leaves and the lime juice that really made the difference.

Basil is a flavourful herb that we use to make dishes such as pasta and pizza. But when you simply throw the leaves into a salad, it really makes a difference. I didn't chop the leaves and I got a good hit of basil whenever it made its way onto my fork.

Meanwhile, the lime juice really added a spark to my salad that would have been otherwise missing. Lime and basil aren't flavours I would usually put together, but I am glad I tried it. The basil gave a lovely herby hint to my salad while the lime added a zingy taste that really brought it to life.

Not only was the flavour amazing, but this salad was full of fibre and nutrients and was a great help when trying to achieve my five a day. If you are looking for a simple salad to make in the hot weather, I say that basil and lime juice are essentials.