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Mark Doe of ‘Just Cooking’ cookery school in Firies tosses some delicious salad recipes together for summer days…
Be creative with your salads and use as much seasonal produce as you can.
A few tips for tasty salads;
• Wash and dry your salad leaves. A salad spinner is a great addition to your kitchen. A lot of the bags of salad that you can buy are washed but in a chlorine solution, so always give them another wash.
If your leaves are dried in a salad spinner they will last longer in your fridge.
• Warm salads are great, but adding warm food to leaf salads can wilt the leaves.
• Don’t overdress your salad as this can make the leaves soggy.
• It is best not to serve salads straight from the fridge. Potato salad, coleslaw etc… can be tasteless when too cold. Remove from the fridge 10 minutes before eating if possible.
• Try adding seasonal berries to salads. Watercress, beetroot and strawberry salad is a lovely Summer salad.
Continued below…
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Beetroot, orange and strawberry salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
• 4 heads of cooked beetroot, chopped
• 200g strawberries, washed and cut into quarters
• 2 oranges, peeled and cut into segments
• 1x 100g packet watercress
For the dressing
• 1 tbsp honey
• 1 teaspoon cumin seeds
• 1 teaspoon red wine vinegar
• 8 tbsp olive oil
Method
• Place the beetroot, orange and strawberries onto a large platter.
• Place the olive oil, cumin, honey and red wine vinegar into a jam jar with a tight fitting lid and give a good shake.
• When ready to serve sprinkle the watercress over the beetroot, strawberries and orange.
•Drizzle over the dressing.
Grilled peach salad with mozzarella and mint pesto
Serves 4
Ingredients
For the salad
• 2 ripe peaches
• 2 teaspoons olive oil
• 1 teaspoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 cups baby arugula
• fresh mozzarella, sliced mint & basil pesto:
• 30g of a mix of mint & basil
• 2 tbsp cup pine nuts, toasted (you could also use walnuts instead)
• 1/2 garlic clove, roughly chopped
• juice and zest from 1/2 a lemon
• 80ml olive oil (or more)
• A pinch of red chilli falkes
• salt & pepper
Instructions
• Slice the peaches into 6 segments per peach. In a small bowl, toss peaches with olive oil, balsamic, and just a small pinch of salt.
• Heat your grill (or grill pan) to medium high heat and brush it with some oil. Place the peach slices on the hot grill and cook each side for 2-3 minutes without moving them (near the end you can gently peek to see how your grill marks are coming along). When your peaches are grilled, set aside and allow them to cool to room temperature.
• Meanwhile make the pesto. Combine all ingredients in a small food processor and pulse to combine. Add more oil for a smoother pesto, or leave it chunky – whichever consistency you prefer.
• Toss the arugula with just a little bit of olive oil and a few pinches of salt. Assemble on a platter and top with mozzarella slices, peaches, dollops of pesto, and a few pinches of red pepper flakes. Squeeze just a bit of lemon on top and serve.
Quinoa and pomegranate salad
• 400ml chicken stock, from a low salt stock cube
• Extra-virgin olive oil
• 200g quinoa
• 1 medium garlic clove, finely chopped
• 1 red onion, finely chopped
• 85g raisins or sultanas
• 100g feta cheese, crumbled
• 200g pomegranates seeds from tub or fruit
85g toasted pine nuts or toasted flaked almonds
• 4 tbsp chopped parsley
• 5 tbsp chopped mint
• juice 1 or 2 of lemons
Method
• Place the chicken stock in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and bring to a simmer. Add the quinoa.
• Cover the saucepan, reduce the heat to low, and cook until all of the liquid is absorbed, about 12-15 minutes, stirring once or twice. . cooked spread over a platter or wide, shallow bowl to cool quickly.
• When the quinoa is just about cool stir through all of the remaining ingredients with plenty of seasoning.
Thai carrot and radish salad
Serves 4
Ingredients
• 4 tbsp sweet chilli dipping sauce
• zest 1 lime and 2 tbsp juice
• 1 tsp fish sauce
• 1 Little Gem lettuce, separated into leaves
• 2 carrots, cut into thin batons
• 10 radishes, sliced
• 4 spring onions, cut on the diagonal
• handful roughly chopped coriander
Method
• Mix the chilli sauce with the lime zest and juice, and fish sauce to make the dressing.
• Arrange the lettuce in a large salad bowl. Toss all the remaining ingredients with the dressing just before you are ready to eat, to keep everything crisp and fresh, then add to the lettuce.
