This is my new favourite salad. No one element is on its own special but as a combo it just works. Everything but the haloumi can be made in advance, the night before, or first thing in the morning so it makes a great weekday lunch.
The other thing I love about this salad is that there are no out of season fruits or vegetables in it. It won’t be long now though until spring will bring asparagus and rhubarb among others. Most excitingly, we can soon forage for wild garlic.
While many of us are pretty bored with winter by now (although we have passed the shortest day of the year – yippee), I am still able to share with you another salad recipe using veg that hasn’t been flown half way across the world.
The recipe link is below but you really don’t have to be a slave to every ingredient. As I can’t grow basil and parsley in the winter I left that out; I swapped the goats cheese for feta; and the spinach can be swapped out for kale. If you do use kale, massage the dressing into the kale before mixing everything together.
As I promised last week, here is another winter salad for you to try out. This one comes from Nigel Slater’s Greenfeast book: autumn, winter. Winter can feel quite long and tedious, none more so than this year, so I am very pleased to have this book for fresh new ideas that use seasonal vegetables. This salad has a bit of a Scandi feel with the pickled onion and sour cream. It keeps pretty well in the fridge for a few days, good for lunches.
When you take a look at the recipe on the link below and compare it with mine you’ll notice it looks a little different. This I think that this is due to food photography not truthfully following the recipe instructions. In the official photography, the soured cream has not been folded into the salad. The photo may look better but I don’t like this playing with the truth. It’s like air brushing but for food.
Tip
When making this recipe you may find the pickled flavour a little strong so I recommend starting with half of the 4 tablespoons pickling liquor when making the dressing. Add the rest a little at a time to allow you to check the taste as you go – and stop when the flavour is just right for you.
My latest food challenge is to build up a collection of salads which are primarily made with vegetables and fruits that are readily available in the European winter (apologies to my overseas readers). I’ll add more recipes over the coming weeks but to remind you, already published recipes include winter apple, squash and kale salad; red cabbage & edamame salad; and grated salad.
Today’s salad is from Ottolenghi’s latest book, Flavour (page 187), together with Ixta Belfrage. It’s easy, tasty and can easily be made in advance. I halved the carrots but made up the whole chamoy as I thought it would be hard to half and Ottolenghi (oh great one) suggested it would keep in the fridge for a week, to be used for more salad or as a condiment to accompany roast veg.
Method
I like this salad for its ability to be a meal in itself, great for a weekday lunch. Brownie points are earned too for being environmentally friendly, if making in the autumn all the main ingredients can be made with those grown in Britain.
The full recipe can be found on BBC Goodfood and below are a few tips from me.
A lovely fresh salad which we had with the salmon in my previous post. The eagle eyed among you may notice (if you take a look at the recipe) that I forgot to add the chili. So annoying as I really do like a good scattering of chili. As Liora will attest to, I regularly miss out a key ingredient of a dish. It’s probably down to trying to do everything too fast.
You will see that I have changed the title of this salad from the original. That is because it works just as well without lentils if they are not something you especially like. However, if you don’t have a strong view either way then you should definitely add the lentils. Lentils have great health benefits so are definitely worth eating. It also makes the salad a more substantial side.
Some tips
Another great Ottolenghi salad. As with many salads it is very often the dressing that makes it. It is especially true of this salad and so you can feel very comfortable swapping out some elements and adding in others. For example in the version I made here I swapped out some of the tomatoes for a diced yellow pepper. A greater ratio of peppers to tomatoes has the advantage of reducing the tendency for the salad becoming too watery in the fridge, if you make ahead of time or have any left overs.
This is one of the many Sabrina Ghayour recipes, from Feasts, we keep returning to – it is a perfect combination of ingredients. The rose harissa in the dressing is an essential ingredient recipe and should not be substituted for regular harissa.
I’m not sure why but while regular harissa can sit in my fridge for a long time after opening, rose harissa seems to develop beyond the edible stage after a few weeks. Its not a cheap ingredient so I now freeze whatever is left in an ice cube tray and then transfer to a freezer bag to use as needed in the future.
When preparing the grapefruit, make sure you use a sharp knife to make the job of segmenting and removing the pith and membrane between each segment easier. The right knife will give you beautiful segments, with very little wastage.
Ingredients (serves 4-6): salad
Ingredients: dressing
… with nori and ginger
As with many salads, its the dressing that makes it. This one with ginger, sesame oil, mayo and light soy sauce is really quite special. You can have a play with the salad ingredients themselves but I recommend sticking to the dressing recipe exactly as given.
… with ginger and tahini dressing
Roasted beetroot is a great way of eating beetroot. Serving it with a mix of salad leaves or rocket as I have (in the pic), plus the ginger and tahini dressing makes it a very lovely salad.
Ingredients
Method
Tip: The beetroot will take a very long time to cook if the wedges are too thick. A 1cm thickness is about right. Check its ready by piercing with a knife to see if the the knife goes through easily.