If you’ve had a salad at a Swiss restaurant, chances are it looked a bit like this:

Served as a main course (and often listed as Gemischter Salat on the menu), or a side to a Fitnessteller (basically the Swiss equivalent of a carb-free platter, usually something grilled, like steak or shrimp, with just salad on the side) the Swiss salad is a bit of an unsung hero.

Although variations exist, a typical Swiss salad plate is made up of individual little salads of beets, carrots, celery root, corn and cucumber (two common variants that I have not included here are tomato and lightly dressed lettuce leaves).

The idea of making five separate salad dressings was a bit tiring, so I instead made two base sauces, and adjusted them as necessary. You can easily make them in advance, then process the vegetables, add them and voilá.

I like a not too saucy salad (to let the vegetables shine through) but the genius of this method is that you can add as much sauce as you like. I also find the very heavy mayo-based sauces a bit too rich, so I have made a yogurt based one instead, with just a bit of mayo for flavour.

I recently bought my very first food processor, which makes the vegetable prep for this salad incredibly easy. Previously I would have used a mandolin, or even a box grater.

I like to make my dressings in jam jars (à la Jamie Oliver), though I find it easier to weigh the liquid in—just pour slowly! If you have too much dressing, just pop the jar in the fridge, it keeps for about a week.

120 g oil

100 g vinegar

10 g mustard

salt and pepper

Weigh everything into a jar (I used a half litre Kilner mason jar because that’s what I had around), then close the lid and shake well.

Alternatively you can whisk everything together in a large measuring cup or bowl.

150 g plain yogurt

30 g milk

20 g mayo

10 g oil

5 g mustard

Weigh everything into a jar (I used a half litre Kilner mason jar because that’s what I had around), then close the lid and shake well.

Alternatively you can whisk everything together in a large measuring cup or bowl.

4 beets, cooked and peeled

1 apple, grated

Grate or cube the beets. Add the grated apple and toss with vinaigrette.

6 medium carrots (around 400 g), finely julienned or grated

Toss with vinaigrette.

1 small celery root (around 400 g), finely julienned or grated

Toss with yogurt dressing.

2 cans of corn

1 tbsp yellow curry powder

Mix together the corn and curry powder.

Toss with yogurt dressing.

1 cucumber, cut into thin slices

handful of chives, minced

Mix together and toss with yogurt dressing.

• There are many time saving ways to make this salad. You can buy bags of already processed carrots and celery root, or pre-cooked beets.