Category: Salad


Jan
2022

Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons

categories: Berries, Blue Cheese, Magazines, Salad, Seasonal Recipes

Today’s recipe for Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons is inspired by a recipe from the December 2001 / January 2002 edition of Super Food Ideas.   Which makes it twenty years old this month!

Berry And Blue Cheese SaladWe are currently sweltering in a hot summer so this salad hits the spot perfectly. And, without tooting my own trumpet too much, can we just stop and take a moment to reflect on how pretty this salad is?

It’s almost too pretty to eat.  But only almost.  Because it’s also delicious

Before we jump into the recipe, let’s take a look at what else was hot in Dec/Jan 2002 with the seasonal eating guide.

What’s Peaking in January – Fruit

Apricots

Why not make some apricot and rhubarb frangipane tarts?

Bananas

Banana Breakfast Cream is a great way to start your day!

Banana CreamBlueberries

Get your Scottish on with some Rhubarb and Blueberry Cranachan

Breakfast Cranachan2Grapefruit

And if you don’t like eating fruit, why not drink it.  This Navigator cocktail has gin, limoncello and pink grapefruit juice…yum!

What’s Peaking in January – Vegetables

Asparagus

Why eat normal sandwiches when you can have these cute as a button Easter Lily Sandwiches?

Easter Lily Sandwiches2

Mushrooms

The vol au vent is, for me, the archetypical retro food.  Why not check out my mushroom vol au vents from way back in 2012?

Retro Food For Modern Times – Holiday Wrap Up

Potato

Step back in time to Pieathalon3 when Ruth sent me a Lemon Potato Pie!

Sweetcorn

Another cookalong resulted in this Cowboy Caviar.  It was delicious.  Thanks Greg for organising our Cowboy Day Cookalong!

Ok, so now onto the main feature!

Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons – The Recipe

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Berry Salad with Blue Cheese Croutons

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A delcious and gorgeous salad, perfect for summer days.

Ingredients

Scale

For The Croutons

  • 1 baguette sliced into 1cm slices
  • 50g creamy blue cheese (I used Gorgonzola dolce)

For The Salad

  • 100g rocket (arugula)
  • 1 cup berries (I used raspberries and strawberries)
  • 2 carrots, cut into thin ribbons
  • 1/8 red cabbage, finely sliced
  • 1/4 cup walnuts, toasted

For The Dressing

  • 1 tbsp raspberries
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
  • 2 tsp Dijon mustard
  • 1/2 tsp sugar
  • Salt and Pepper to taste

Instructions

For The Croutons

  1. Spread each round of bread lightly with the cheese.
  2. Bake in a moderate oven (180C) for 5-10 minutes until crisp.
  3. Allow to cool.

For The Dressing

  1. Puree the raspberries.
  2. Whisk in the oil, vinegar, sugar and seasonings.

For The Salad

  1. Place the rocket leaves in a bowl.
  2. Add the berries, carrots, red cabbage and walnuts.
  3. Toss to combine.
  4. Top with the blue cheese croutons.
  5. Drizzle with the dressing just before serving.

Notes

  • The original recipe contained spinach and asparagus. I didn’t have either when I made this so I subbed in the carrot and red cabbage. Go your own way on this!

I was back to work this week which was a shock to the system!

 

 

Berry And Blue Cheese Salad2

 

I’ll be back ,mid-week with another cheese heavy post.

In the meantime, have a great week!

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Jan
2022

Leek and Hazelnut Salad

categories: Leeks, Salad

Hello food lovers, welcome to 2022!!!!  Recently I reposted an old recipe and it got me thinking that I had not posted a Dishiest Dish post in a very long time.   One of my intentions for 2022 is to resume that practice, primarily because over the last few months I have misplaced a few recipes that were really good!   So, for every month this year, I will be posting the recipe for the best thing I made in the preceding month.  And for December, it was a delicious Leek and Hazelnut Salad.

Leek Salad 1

I have recently become obsessed with leeks.  They are in last week’s Detox Soup and I also made Rachel Khoo’s Leeks in Vinaigrette with Bayonne Ham.

For full disclosure, I do not like hazelnuts.  I’ll eat them if mixed with other things like chocolate in Nutella but if it is possible to pick them out of something, I’ll do it. So, for my salad, I use macadamias which are, to my taste, a far superior nut!  Almonds would also work here.  As you can also see from the photo above, in this particular iteration, I have also swapped out the spring onions for red onions.

Leek and Hazelnut Salad 2

The combination of the sweet tangle of leeks, the tanginess of the pickled onions, the creamy goat’s cheese, the crunchy nuts and the cooked to perfection (even if I do say so myself ) soft boiled egg is a delight!   And if you want to take the newspaper’s suggestion of accompanying your leek and hazelnut salad with a glass of sparkling wine, well I will not try to stop you.  In fact, I am now questioning why I have not done that in the many times I have made it.  Oh well, another reason to make it again!  (As if I needed one).

Leek and Hazelnut Salad – The Recipe

I snipped this recipe from the newspaper (Possibly The Age), years ago.  I do not know whose recipe it is in order to credit them.  Whoever you are, thank you.  And if by chance you happen to be reading this, please let me know so I can update the post!

Leek and Hazelnut Salad Recipe

 

Other Favourites of The Month

Reading

The Appeal by Janice Halllett

This is a darkly comic mystery story told through emails, text messages and other forms of media.  The Appeal is possibly the best book I have read all year.

 

I also thoroughly enjoyed the second in the Thursday Murder Club Series, The Man who Died Twice by Richard Osman.

My audible book of the month was The Broken Teaglass by Emily Arsenault.  This was a great story but I did not love the male narrator’s voice.  I think I would have preferred this in normal book format.

Cookbook

Through December, I also became obsessed with the Australian chef Karen Martini and bought three of her books – Cooking At Home, Feasting and Where the Heart Is.  Given I have bought so many of her books, I hope to feature one of her recipes very soon!

Our cookbook club book of the month is not a book at all but we are cooking from tv shows.  I am torn between the Jamie Oliver series for his new cookbook Together and Adam’s Liaw’s tv show The Cook Up.

Watching

My current fave thing to watch the British tv show Bargain Hunt. I love thrift shopping so watching other people do it has great appeal!

Cooking

This month I am keen to finish the remaining recipes in the Hugh Fearnley Wittingstall book which was a Tasty Reads pick back in 2015. I have only 4 recipes left to cook from this book!

I will also be making this recipe from the aforementioned  The Cook Up.  Using homegrown zucchini!

These are the books I will be cooking from this week

Cookbooks this week

Shopping

Queenies

My boss introduced me to these which come in a gorgeous array of designs and give your hair a very cute and somewhat vintage-looking wave.  I bought the Mojo design. Below is the first time I used it and I was pretty happy with the result.  Apologies for the gormless look on my face, I am incapable of taking a good selfie!

Queenie

Saint Belford Curation Diary

I am constantly on the search for the perfect planner.   I bought one in champagne pink to help keep me on track this year!  It really does seem to have everything in the one place – Habits, meal planner, gratitude, goals, bucketlist and of course, space for your to-do’s, appointments etc.

And just because, here is a pic of Oscar and Holly. Holly has not been well through Christmas and still needs some further testing done once the specialist vets return to work.  But for the moment, she is doing well and happy cuddling up to her big bro:

Oscar and Holly

That’s it for me, I hope you enjoyed this little peek into my life!

Have a wonderful week!

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Jan
2021

LMNOP Salad

categories: Modern Times, Salad

Hello Friends!  After the disaster which was the Pink Dawn Salad, today I am sharing a recipe for my LMNOP salad.  This is not only one of my favourite summer dinners but it is also a mnemonic which will help you to make a huge variety of other great salads!

Ever stood at the supermarket wondering if you had picked up everything you needed for your salad?  Or come home to realise you had forgotten a key ingredient?  ‘Well, with this LMNOP salad you will never forget a single ingredient because the keys to building a great salad are as easy as ABC!

LMNOP Salad

Let’s start at the very beginning – it is, after all, a very good place to start.

L is for Lettuce

In this instance, I have used cos (romaine for my American friends) but this works as well with mesclun, watercress, rocket…whatever salad green you favour!

LMNOP Salad2

M is for Mozzarella

Mmmmmm…I am currently OBSESSED with buffalo mozzarella and am eating it a couple of times a week!  Burrata is also divine with this.  But for our memory device, you can sub in any cheese you wish.

LMNOP Salad3

N is for Nectarines

But feel free to swap in your favourite stone fruit fo the  Peaches or apricots will work here and see below as to some other fruit suggestions…LMNOP Salad 4

O is for Olive Oil…

And in this instance a little bit of red wine vinegar.  In our mnemonic, the O equals the dressing we are going to place on our salad.

LMNOP Salad 5

P is for Proscuitto

In this salad but for our wider application it can also stand for Protein.

LMNOP Salad 6

Applications of the LMNOP formula

Okay, so you have seen how to make the OG version of the LMNOP salad – here are some ideas of how you can apply the formula to mix things up!

  • Rocket (Arugula) + Blue Cheese + Pears + Walnut Oil Vinaigrette+ Bresaola
  • Mixed leaves + Haloumi + Cherries + Lemon and Olive Oil + Turkey
  • Watercress + Vintage Cheddar + Apples + Vinagrette with mint + left over roast lamb
  • Cos Lettuce + Feta + Strawberries + Lemon + olive oil + Salmon
  • Cos + Parmesan +Apples + a creamy dressing + bacon will give you a kind of Ceasar Salad
  • Kale and goat’s cheese and apricots and olive oil and vinegar + chicken

Of course you can add more veggies or fruit if you wish.  The photo below is the turkey and halloumi salad mentioned above with some grilled snap peas added.

LMNOP Salad 7

The brilliance of this recipe is that it is so versatile that you could serve it you your friends or family every day for a week and no one will ever know that you are using a formula. Tasty, healthy, easy and you will never forget an ingredient again!

Enjoy and please let me know what creations you come up with using the LMNOP formula!

Have a great week!

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Jan
2021

Pink Dawn Salad

categories: Prawns, Salad, ThaiLand, World Cooking

Hello friends!  Today we are talking Thai.  I love Thai food in general but I absolutely love Thai salads – my favourite is green papaya or green mango salad but a Thai beef salad or a banana blossom salad are also fine by me. I love their freshness and zing!  So I had high hopes for a Thai inspired salad with a lovely name –  Pink Dawn Salad. This comes from Good Housekeepings World Cookery (1972). Imagine this as a salad –  the perfect mix of colours becoming the perfect Thai mix of sweet, salt, hot and sour!

Gorgeous huh?  And now that I’ve set your expectations….let’s take a look at the salad.  I mean, I knew from the ingredients that it was not going to be a typical Thai salad but it was definitely touted as such by the press back in the 1970’s.  I found an article from back in 1978 in the Vancouver Sun that contains this same recipe which certainly implies if not downright states that this is an authentic Thai Salad.  Anyway, here it is…Pink Dawn Salad

Hmm…not great is it?

There was nothing wrong with the Pink Dawn Salad.  I like eggs, tomatoes and prawns.  I’m not that keen on bananas but Holy likes them…

Pink Dawn Salad 2

Between the two of us, we ate it all. It was just…meh.  Boring…bland…not really cohesive. Not a bit Thai. And only marginally pink.

Pink Dawn Salad 3

I’m calling a fail on the Pink Dawn Salad – the great name did not equate to great flavour.  And I had to skin tomatoes which is something I find weirdly repulsive.

Pink Dawn Salad – The Recipe

Here it is…although I  can’t recommend that you give it a try.

Pink Dawn Salad (2)

If you are looking for a good Thai salad, I made a Crisp Chilli Whitebait and Green Mango Salad from Australian Gourmet Traveller a few days ago and it was heaven!!!!  It was actually this on a plate! Recipe here:  https://www.gourmettraveller.com.au/recipe/mains/crisp-chilli-whitebait-and-green-mango-salad-10838/

Have a great week!

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May
2020

10-Minute Autumn Salad

categories: Chestnuts, Salad, Vegetables

Autumn is truly here.  Most days are bright and sunny days but with a little chill in the air to let you know that winter is on its way.  The nights are getting cold and darkness is falling a little bit earlier each day. It is very pretty when I am out on my daily walk with the dogs.  And it is perfect weather for an Autumnal Salad.  

Autumn salad not only makes the use of one of my favourite autumn ingredients, chestnuts but the colours of the dish are meant to resemble the colours of autumn.

Autumnal Salad

One of the paradoxes of living in iso is that, just when I have more time to cook, half the time I can’t be bothered.  I feel like I can’t remember a time when I didn’t feel anxious or scared. And whilst I am trying to enjoy the pleasures of the little things such as the turning of the leaves, TBH, a lot of the time I just want to sleep and/or play mindless games on my phone.  Another weird thing is that I am sleeping more than ever but constantly feel tired.

Anyway, for the days when I am feeling blah, this salad is a lifesaver.  Not only does it only take around ten minutes to prepare but  Autumn Salad  looks so colourful and pretty, is healthy and can be varied to fit what you have in the fridge or what you feel like eating on the day!

Back in the days before the ‘rona I used to regularly stock up on little vacuum packets of roasted chestnuts from the Japanese department store Daiso.  I usually have a few of these in my pantry to make this salad and other things requiring chestnuts.  I used my last pack to make this one so, for future rounds, it looks like I will be roasting my own chestnuts!  Good thing they are in season!  This will take this recipe out of the 10-minute realm but it will be worth it!

Autumnal Salad2

The Recipe

The original recipe for the Autumn Salad comes from the May 2003 Delicious magazine.  The basic recipe is this:

Autumn Salad Recipe

However, the joy of this salad lies in the variations.

Make it vegetarian

  • Substitute the Proscuitto for Blue Cheese (This is my favourite). 
  • Throw in some chopped up pears if you like.  Fresh or dried, both a great!

Make it vegan

  • Substitute the Proscuitto for Roast Pumpkin or Sweet Potato

Autumnal Salad 4

You can serve this Autumn Salad on its own or for a larger meal, it is fabulous with a baked potato, loaded with butter and chives,

That’s me done for today.  Stay safe!

 

 

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