How do you make a grain salad that isn't bland?

A bland grain salad is a bowl of good intentions: colourful, promising, and tasting of very little after the first forkful. The problem is almost never the grain. It is that grains are sponges, and if you don't give them enough flavour to soak up, they soak up nothing.

Choose a grain with character

Almost any grain works, but each brings its own texture:

• Farro and spelt: chewy, nutty, robust. They hold up for days. Our page on farro untangles the names.
• Barley: plump and slippery-soft, very comforting.
• Freekeh or bulgur: quick, a little smoky (freekeh) or fluffy (bulgur).
• Brown or wild rice: chewy, earthy.
• Couscous and small pasta shapes: soft and fast, best eaten soon after making.

Cook the grains in well-salted water, like pasta, until tender but still with some bite. Mushy grains make a gluey salad.

Dress them warm

This is the most important step. Drain the grains well, then, while they are still warm, toss them with a good part of the dressing: olive oil, vinegar or lemon juice, salt and pepper. Warm grains absorb flavour right into the middle; cold grains just get coated.

Season boldly. Grains, like potatoes, need more salt and acid than you might expect. Taste a spoonful on its own: it should be delicious already, not merely neutral.

Spread the dressed grains on a tray to cool and steam off, so they don't turn soggy.

Build contrast

Once the grains have cooled a little, add contrast. Aim for at least one thing from each group:

• Crunch: toasted nuts or seeds, raw fennel, celery, radishes, cucumber, crisp chickpeas.
• Sharp or salty: capers, olives, pickled onions, feta, shaved pecorino, a few chopped preserved lemons.
• Sweet or juicy: roasted squash or peppers, cherry tomatoes, grapes, pomegranate seeds, raisins plumped in vinegar.
• Green: rocket, spinach, blanched green beans, peas.
• Rich: soft cheese, a spoonful of yogurt sauce, avocado, or a jammy egg on top.

Keep the proportions generous on the extras. A grain salad should be roughly as much other stuff as grain, not a few cubes of cucumber lost in a sea of barley.

What to add last

Some things should only go in just before serving:

• Soft herbs, lots of them: parsley, mint, basil, dill. They wilt and darken if they sit for long.
• Delicate leaves, which go limp.
• Nuts and crunchy things, which soften in the dressing.
• A final splash of acid and oil. Grains keep absorbing, so a salad that tasted perfect when you made it may taste flat an hour later. A last squeeze of lemon, a pinch of salt and a thread of oil bring it back. Our page on a squeeze of lemon explains why acid makes such a difference.

A few directions

• Summer: farro, cherry tomatoes, cucumber, basil, olives, mozzarella or ricotta salata, red wine vinegar.
• Autumn: barley, roasted squash, toasted hazelnuts, rocket, pecorino, a little honey in the dressing.
• Winter: spelt, roasted beetroot, orange segments, walnuts, parsley, goat's cheese.
• Pantry: couscous, tinned chickpeas, capers, chopped jarred peppers, lemon, lots of herbs.