Category: Salad

Café Green Salad

.Reading time less than 1 minute.

 Serves: 4 – 6

This is a really sweet little vinaigrette with the addition of the soy.

To the greens I added thinly sliced radishes and snippets of chives, though you could really do anything and it would be amazing.

Served with a steak w/ black olive butter, some sautéed mushrooms with garlic and a smashing mac and cheese. You can imagine the smiles and red wine cheers!

Ingredients

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 tsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp Balsamic vinegar
Small splash soy sauce
Salt and pepper
Salad greens

Method

  1. Whisk together the ingredients except the greens to make the vinaigrette. Taste for seasoning.
  2. Dress the greens with the vinaigrette.

Fattoush (Lebanese summer salad)

.Reading time 1 minute.

 Serves: 4 – 6

This is a wonderful and healthy salad. And beautifully coloured too.

We had it as part of a Lebanese feast we cooked up, though served with some grilled meat and some pan fried potatoes and you would be the undisputed king or queen of the kitchen that day.

Keep your dice small and really make the salad special.

Ingredients

1 Lebanese round bread
2 Lebanese cucumbers, finely diced
2 tomatoes, finely diced
½ c radish, finely diced
½ red capsicum finely diced
½ green capsicum finely diced
4 spring onions, finely diced
2 tbsp mint, finely chopped
½ c coriander, finely chopped (or use parsley)

Dressing

1 lemon, juiced
¼ c extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper to taste

Method

  1. Heat the oven to 180c and cook the Lebanese bread until crisp; around 10 minutes. (More traditional Fattoush recipes call for the Lebanese bread to be deep fried in vegetable oil and feel free!)
  2. Allow the bread to cool and then crumble using your hands.
  3. Combine the rest of the ingredients with the bread and the dressing.

Nat’s Famous (Poached) Chicken Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.
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OMG – As Nat would say.

Serves: 4

This really is one of my favourite recipes. And I can only claim scant ownership; I merely passed the recipe to my fabulous partner Nat who…

Now owns it.

And that is why it is her famous – and truly – amazing poached chicken salad.

Don’t hold back. This recipe is famous and famously good in our family and among our friends.

If you know Nat, you’ll know how clever and brilliant she is. With food, the theme is no different.

This salad sums her up.

Ingredients

4 x 180gm chicken breasts
100gm wild rocket leaves
20 green beans, blanched, refreshed (I then cut them in thirds)
1 small fennel bulb, thinly sliced (use a mandoline if you have it)
1/4 cup each finely chopped flay-leaf parsley and dill
2 x 300gm buffalo mozzarella balls, torn (or substitute bocconcini)

Red Wine Vinaigrette

1 tbs red wine vinegar
100ml extra virgin olive oil
3 tsp Dijon mustard
1 garlic clove, finely chopped
1 tsp finely chopped rosemary, thyme and basil leaves

Method

  1. Place the chicken in a large saucepan and pour in enough cold water to just cover.
  2. Season with sea salt and pepper and cover with a lid. Bring to the boil over a high-heat then reduce the heat to medium and simmer for 10 minutes.
  3. Remove the lid, set aside from the heat and let the chicken stand in the poaching liquid for 10 mins. Drain and set aside.
  4. For the vinaigrette, whisk together the vinegar, oil, Dijon mustard, garlic and chopped herbs in a bowl. Set aside, though give a good whisk just before serving.
  5. Roughly shred the chicken into medium pieces.
  6. Toss with the beans, rocket, fennel, parsley and dill in a larger serving bowl.
  7. Drizzle with the vinaigrette and season.
  8. Serve the salad topped with the torn buffalo mozzarella.

Spanish Potato Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6 as a side

This is another Bobby Flay recipe and is a great and very colourful – thanks to the saffron, tomato and red onion – addition to my repertoire of potato salads.

I served it with Jamie Oliver’s spice crusted BBQ leg of lamb and it was fabulous.

Ingredients

¼ c red wine vinegar
1 tbsp honey
1 pinch saffron threads
1 c good cup quality egg mayonnaise
1 tbsp minced garlic
Salt and freshly ground pepper
1kg new potatoes
1 large tomato
½ c finely diced Spanish onion
1 tbsp chopped fresh thyme
¼ c coarsely chopped flatleaf parsley

Method

  1. Combine the vinegar, honey and saffron in a small pot. Bring to a boil over a high heat and immediate remove from the heat and let cool to room temperature.
  2. Combine the mayonnaise and garlic with the saffron mixture in a medium mixing bowl and season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Cook the potatoes in a large pot of boiling, salted water until tender. Drain and slice 1cm thick. Place in a large serving bowl and immediately fold in the mayonnaise mixture, tomatoes, onion, thyme and parsley. Season again and enjoy!

The Best Green Salad with White Wine Dressing

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 – 6

Doesn’t any lunch – pasta, BBQ, seafood – just say its Saturday when there is a big green salad on the table?! It says pour a glass of wine, grab a piece of bread and relax.

This is my go-to green salad. It is a Valli Little recipe and you can of course adjust the dressing with say Dijon mustard or maybe some diced shallots.

Ingredients

1 small frisee lettuce (curly endive)
2 baby cos lettuce
2 cups wild rocket leaves
1 handful chervil sprigs (Harris Farm your best bet)
2 handfuls of baby green beans, blanched for 1 – 2 minutes in boiling water
Bunch of chives
1/3 c white wine
¼ c lemon juice
1 tsp honey
¾ c extra virgin olive oil

Method

  1. Remove the outer leaves from the frisee and cos. Wash the inner leaves with the rocket and dry in a salad spinner or with paper towel.
  2. Pick the chervil leaves and place in a serving bowl with the lettuce and the beans. Hold the chives over the bowl and using kitchen scissors, finely snip half the chives into the bowl.
  3. In a separate bowl, whisk the wine, lemon juice and honey and season with salt and pepper. Slowly whisk in the oil until you have an emulsified dressing. Toss the salad and dressing together, then garnish with the remaining (long) chives and serve.

Lamb Filo Spirals with Tomato and Mint Salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves 4

Recently at a function and calorie counting, I told myself not to eat but a few of the healthier canapes on offer, knowing full well that the healthiest canape was still not likely to get the Jenny Craig nod of approval.

Anyway, was doing pretty well, keeping to mineral water when a tray of old-school, Greek, mince and filo pastry triangles is offered. And if there is anything I can’t resist, it’s mince and filo pastry. Jenny was not amused but I really didn’t have any choice.

If it’s cold and raining and you just want some comfort and the couch, this recipe is for you.

Just stop counting your calories for the night!

Ingredients

1 3/4 c mint leaves
600g minced lamb
2 gloves garlic, crushed
1 teaspoon ground cumin
16 sheets filo pastry
100g butter, melted
2 tablespoon flaked almonds
2 tablespoon sesame seeds
250g punnet cherry tomatoes, halved
2 Lebanese cucumbers, halved lengthways, thinly sliced diagonally
1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
2 teaspoons lemon juice, plus lemon wedges to serve.

Method

  1. Preheat the oven to 200c.
  2. Coarsely chop 3/4 cup mint, then combine with mince, garlic and cumin in a bowl. Season to taste with salt and pepper.
  3. Place filo pastry on a work surface; keep covered with a lightly damp tea towel while working to prevent it drying out. Take 1 sheet of pastry and brush it lightly with melted butter. Top with another sheet and brush with butter.
  4. Place a 1cm-wide strip of lamb mixture along one side of the pastry. Roll pastry to enclose filling, then working quickly, coil the length of the pastry into a snail-shape. Place on 1 large paper-lined oven trays, then brush with butter. Repeat with the remaining pastry, butter and filling.
  5. Scatter the spirals with almonds and sesame seeds, then bake for 30 minutes or until crisp and golden.
  6. Meanwhile, combine tomatoes and cucumbers and remaining mint (1 c) in a bowl. Add oil and lemon juice and season to taste and toss to combine.
  7. Serve warm spirals with the salad and lemon wedges.

Neil Perry’s Warm Squid Salad

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves: 4 as a share plate

It is after numbers like this one that you wonder why you don’t cook more squid! And if you don’t trust me, you have to trust that pretty much anything Neil Perry cooks is going to be wonderful.

It is an incredibly easy dish to do, it takes no time to prep and cook and it’s healthy sans the loaf of bread which unfortunately, is not optional!

The key to it all is to cook the different ingredients as fast as possible! And preferably, with the two of you cooking; it’s a fast-faced, hands-on, let’s both be rewarded sort of experience.

Enjoy.

Ingredients

Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 medium Spanish Onion roughly sliced
3 garlic, sliced
2 fresh Bay leaves finely sliced
Sweet Sherry
4 medium Squid Tubes sliced 2cm thick
4 Tomatoes blanched, quartered, peeled and de-seeded
½ bunch Parsley picked
Sea salt
Freshly Ground black Pepper to taste
2 Lemons juiced
Rustic loaf of bread to sop up sauce

Method

  1. Heat a little extra virgin olive oil in a saucepan to very hot. Add the onion, garlic and bay leaf and fry quickly.
  2. Add the sweet sherry, toss around and allow the alcohol to burn off as it quickly reduces.
  3. Add the sliced squid. Toss through for about 30 seconds
  4. Add the tomato quarters, parsley, salt and pepper.
  5. Finish with the lemon juice, a dash of extra virgin olive oil and a grind of pepper.

Salmon Salad with Vinaigrette

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves: 2 – 4

Another sub-300 calorie dish that I have adapted.

And so good.

Alternate the number of pieces of salmon you cook (2 – 4) depending on how many meals you wish to prepare. Served the next day from the refrigerator, it is just as good as warm the night before so even if it is just you, I’d do two pieces of salmon: dinner and a fabulous, healthy lunch at work.

(And swap a boiled, sliced egg for the potato if you wish.)

Ingredients

400gm green beans, trimmed and cut into 5cm lengths
¼ c red wine vinegar
2 tbsp Dijon mustard
1 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp mince shallots
¼ tsp kosher salt
¼ tsp black pepper
2 – 4 salmon fillets, skin off
4 c salad greens
¼ c sliced red onion
1 tbsp capers
2 tbsp black olives, chopped
4 baby potatoes (or 2 hard-cooked eggs, sliced)
Handful of parsley, chopped

Method

  1. Steam the beans until al dente, refresh and drain. Combine the salad greens, capers, olives, beans and red onion and set aside.
  2. Steam the potatoes until cooked and slice. Set aside.
  3. Combine the vinegar, mustard, olive oil, shallots, 1/8 tsp salt and pepper in a small bowl and whisk until combined; set aside.
  4. Heat a pan to medium hot, spray both sides of the fish fillets with olive oil, season with the remaining salt and pepper and cook both side until fish flakes easily.
  5. Put a good handful of the salad/bean mixture in each bowl, sprinkle a few slices of potato (or egg) and flake the fish on top. Dress with the dressing and serve with a garnish of chopped parsley.

Ellen’s Caesar Salad Dressing

.Reading time 1 minute.

Serves 4

I can’t categorically claim that this recipe is my mother’s, though when she cites recipes, she always gives credit where credit is due; and for this particular dressing, she cites no one.

Doubly, Caesar salad was something I at so much of as a child (or at least as a teenager) that this particular dressing means home to me. Honestly, I have never tasted a better Caesar dressing.

Tear some cos lettuce, cut half a loaf of white break into 2cm squares and sauté in olive oil until brown (and sprinkling with garlic powder once done), shave some parmesan, perhaps julienne and cook some bacon, and here is your classic – brilliant – Caesar salad; add grilled prawns or grilled, sliced chicken breast and here is your classic – brilliant – weekend lunch!

Ingredients
2 cloves garlic
1 tin flat anchovy fillets
¼ c oil (olive oil and vegetable oil mixed)
2 tbsp grated Parmesan
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
1 ½ tsp Worcestershire sauce
Good grind of pepper

Salad: All the other ingredients for a Caesar salad; cos lettuce, croutons, parmesan cheese, bacon and perhaps some protein in the form of prawn or chicken.

Method

  1. For the dressing, in a blender, blend all the ingredients and check the seasoning.

Warm potato salad

.Reading time 2 minutes.

Serves 6

Growing up, potato salad meant two things to me. That fabulous, only-served-at-picnics Woolworths potato salad that you knew you shouldn’t like or eat.

Or the different variations my mother served to us; potato salads that were not bleached white, often contained mustards and wine and herbs and frequently enough, were warm. This recipe is one of many she has given me.

I still have a hidden love for the Woolworths variety, though I still know I shouldn’t eat it except for BBQs and picnics and fishing trips. This potato salad however, has no guilt attached to it and is simply fabulous served with a steak, sausages or really anything that goes with potato salad.

Better still, as with all potato salads, make enough and it is the gift that keeps on giving; head to the fridge with a teaspoon at 11pm on a Saturday night and repeat every fifteen minutes until  you wake up on Sunday and start the same trick from 11am onwards.

Long live the potato salad.

Ingredients

100gm thinly sliced bacon
1.25kg potatoes, scrubbed
½ c sour cream
1 tbsp honey
1 eschallot, finely chopped
2 tbsp red wine vinegar
1/3 c olive oil
1 bunch chives, finely chopped
Salt and pepper
Flat-leaf parsley, roughly chopped

Method

  1. Fry the bacon and then break it up.
  2. Cook the potatoes in boiling, salted water and then drain, peel off the skins and slice.
  3. Combine the sour cream, mustard, honey, eschallot, vinegar, olive oil and chives, season with salt and pepper and toss through the warm potato and bacon.
  4. Garnish with the parsley and look forward to the next 24 hours of slightly guilt-free snacking.