Tag Archives: salad

Chicken and Carrot Salad

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This delicious salad can be served in wraps or sandwiches, on a bed of lettuce leaves or as a dip – with crusty bread, crackers or vegetable sticks.

As you can see in the photo, I served it as a  light supper on a bed of lettuce, drizzled with Japanese roasted sesame dressing and sprinkled with a few pine nuts. This salad is quite rich, so to lighten it up you could add 2 cups cold cooked rice.

2 cups cooked chicken, finely chopped
1 cup grated carrots
1 Tbs finely chopped fresh dill + extra to garnish
¼ red onion, finely chopped
1 pot cream cheese (Philly or similar) about 200g (at room temp)
¼ cup mayonnaise, home-made or bought
2 Tbs softened butter (optional)
1 tsp Dijon mustard
½ tsp garlic powder
½ tsp salt
Freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Good pinch of ground nutmeg
To serve:
Crackers or baguette or dark bread
Veggie sticks such as carrot, cucumber, celery

Place chicken, carrots, dill and onion in a salad bowl. In another bowl place cream cheese (at room temp), mayonnaise and butter. Mix well with a balloon whisk until smooth. Add mustard, garlic powder, salt, pepper and nutmeg. Scrape into the bowl with the chicken and mix well.

Cover and refrigerate until serving time. Leave at room temperature for 15 mins before serving. Garnish with extra dill fronds. Serve as a dip or in sandwiches or wraps with lettuce leaves.

Makes 4-5 cups

Smoked Trout Salad with Tamarind Dressing

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Whole smoked trout are sold in supermarkets in Australia in vacuum packs. The use by date allows you to keep them for a week or two in the fridge before they need to be eaten. Handy for those occasions when you peer into the fridge thinking “What can I make for dinner with what I’ve got?” One smoked trout is enough to make a light meal for two or three people.

Carefully remove the flesh in large chunks, discarding the skin and bones. Mix with freshly cooked pasta, adding a splash of cream and a few capers or chopped dill. Some halved baby tomatoes or rocket leaves are optional additions. Or try this delicious risotto.

Or make this Asian salad which is perfect as a starter for four or a light main dish for two.

Smoked Trout Salad with Asian Dressing

Tamarind Dressing:
3 spring onions or small shallots
1 clove garlic
½ small red chilli, seeded and chopped
2 Tbs roasted peanuts or cashews
1 Tbs fish sauce
1 Tbs tamarind paste (sold in jars)
3 Tbs water
3 Tbs palm sugar, chopped, or substitute brown sugar
1 Tbs grated fresh ginger
Salad:
1 smoked trout, flesh removed, bones and skin discarded
2-3 cups small salad leaves or rocket
1 Tbs finely diced fresh lime (skin and flesh) (optional)
2 Tbs roasted peanuts or cashews, coarsely chopped
½ cup coriander leaves
Extra virgin olive oil

Dressing: Place spring onions or shallots, garlic, chilli and peanuts in food processor and process until you have a paste. Add remaining dressing ingredients and process, stopping to scrape down the sides halfway. Place paste in a saucepan and simmer for 3-4 minutes. It should be thick and a bit sticky. You may need to add a bit more water to get the right consistency. Cool.

Meanwhile arrange salad leaves on two plates. Top with the trout pieces, lime, peanuts and coriander leaves. Top each piece of smoked trout with some of the sauce, then drizzle a little olive oil around the edge of the plate.

Any leftover dressing is delicious served with cold roast meats.

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as a starter

Note: some supermarkets sell smoked trout fillets without skin or bones.

Variation: to serve as finger food, separate the leaves of 2 heads of chicory (witloof or witlof) and top each with a piece of smoked trout, the remaining toppings and some of the dressing.

Longbench Couscous Salad

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My daughter Catherine gave me this recipe way back in 2009 from her favourite lunch time cafe in Newcastle. It was called Longbench and was located in Darby Street, but sadly it has been closed for some years.

1 cup couscous
½ cup orange juice
½ cup boiling water
1 Tbs olive oil
Handful of baby rocket
Handful of mint leaves
1 medium eggplant
Handful of cocktail tomatoes
Olive oil
Salt and freshly ground black pepper
½ cup toasted almond slivers or pine nuts
½ red onion thinly sliced
½ cup dried currants
Tomato chutney
Halloumi cheese cut into 8 thick chunks
Dressing
1 cooked beetroot or 2, depending on size
¼ cup orange juice
Pinch cinnamon
1 Tbs. your favourite vinegar
1 Tbs sugar
2-3 Tbs olive oil

Mix couscous with the orange juice, boiling water and 1 Tbs olive oil. Cover and leave for 15 minutes then fluff it up with a fork.

Preheat oven to 200° C. Line a baking tray with baking paper. Slice the eggplant about one cm thick and arrange on the tray with the tomatoes. Brush them all over with some olive oil and season to taste. Bake for 25 minutes or until the eggplant is evenly browned on both sides. Cut the eggplant slices into long strips.

To the bowl of couscous add the tomatoes, eggplant, rocket leaves, mint leaves, almonds or pine nuts, onion and dried currants. Divide amongst 4 serving plates. Top each with a dollop of tomato chutney and two pieces of halloumi cheese, panfried until golden. Finish with  some beetroot dressing.

Dressing
Place all ingredients in food processor or blender and mix. Add enough olive oil to make a nice consistency.

Serves 4

Japanese Salad with Sushi Flavours

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This salad combines all the flavours we love in Japanese sushis and it’s delicious.

Serve it on steamed rice for a quick poke bowl, or on a bed of shredded iceberg lettuce, lightly dressed with Kewpie toasted sesame dressing, which you can find in most Australian supermarkets. Or use the salad as a filling for sandwiches or wraps. Or just eat it as it is for a high protein, low carbs light meal.

2 cooked chicken breasts, cut into strips or chunks (buy a rotisserie chicken from the supermarket for ease) or 300g cooked prawn meat, coarsely chopped
1 large ripe avocado, cubed
2 Tbs lemon or lime juice
1 Tbs Kewpie mayonnaise* (or ordinary mayonnaise)
1 Tbs Thai sweet chilli sauce
2 tsp sesame seeds (preferably black)*
1 tsp soy sauce
1 Tbs pickled ginger, chopped*
1 Tbs Asian crispy shallots*
Salt to taste
2 spring onions, thinly sliced on the diagonal
1 Lebanese cucumber, quartered lengthwise then cut into small cubes
1 clove garlic, crushed
To garnish:
A handful of fresh coriander, roughly chopped
1 sheet nori cut into strips, then into small julienne pieces*

Place all ingredients for salad in a large bowl and mix well.

Serve garnished with the coriander and nori pieces. Serve alone, or on steamed rice or in wraps or sandwiches.

Serves 4 on rice or in wraps or 2 on its own

*if you can’t find black sesame seeds, Asian crispy shallots, pickled ginger, Kewpie mayonnaise and nori seaweed sheets in the Asian section of your supermarket, go to an Asian grocery store

Rocket & Pear Salad with Parmesan & Nuts

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My Peruvian friend Christina, an art restorer, was living in Paris when we were posted there. She gave me this recipe. Well, to be honest, she made it when we went to her place for dinner one night and I copied the idea. It has since become one of my favourite salads. Especially in the colder months when the pears are good but the tomatoes aren’t.

Sometimes the pears you find at the supermarket are very underripe, so it’s good to plan ahead and keep one in the fruit bowl for a couple of days until it feels just ripe, which is perfect for this recipe.

Rocket leaves or a mix of salad greens
1 ripe but not overripe pear (peel if preferred, I don’t)
1 shallot or ¼ of a red onion, very finely diced
Toasted pine nuts or chopped walnuts or pecans
60g coarsely grated Parmesan cheese (optional)
Dressing:
2 Tbs red wine vinegar
3-4 Tbs olive oil
Salt and freshly grated black pepper to taste
1 tsp honey (optional)
1 tsp Dijon mustard

Place all ingredients for dressing in a jar with a lid and shake to combine.

Arrange rocket or salad greens on serving dish. Quarter and core the pear, then cut into thin slices. Arrange over the salad. Sprinkle with the onion, toasted nuts and Parmesan. Drizzle with the dressing, then gently mix. Any leftover dressing will keep in the fridge for up to a month.

 

Anantara’s Beetroot, Pumpkin & Rocket Salad with Caramelised Walnuts

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While chilling out for a few days in Chiang Mai, Thailand last year at the Bodhi Serene, on our way back to Australia from Europe, we had a fantastic dinner at the restaurant in the Anantara hotel. The Anantara is a chain with hotels and resorts all over the world.

This year we were staying in the Little Riverside in Hoi An Vietnam when we noticed an Anantara hotel right next door. We had two excellent dinners there and on the day we were leaving this is what I had for lunch. Well this is my version.

1 bunch rocket, washed and spun dry
2 cups pumpkin, peeled and cut into 2-3cm cubes
2 beetroot, peeled and cut into quarters or eighths
8 French shallots, peeled
1 Tbs olive oil
1 orange, peeled and cut into segments
¾ cup walnuts or pecans
1 Tbs maple syrup
Dressing:
2 Tbs olive oil
2 Tbs orange juice
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste

Preheat oven to 200°C. Mix pumpkin, beetroot and shallots with olive oil, season lightly then spread out on a baking tray lined with baking paper. Cook for 30 mins or until cooked and lightly browned.

Arrange rocket in serving dish. Top with the roasted vegetables and the orange segments. Place walnuts or pecans in a small frying pan and stir over moderate heat for a minute or two. Add the maple syrup and stir until the nuts are glazed and sticky.  Arrange over the salad then drizzle with the dressing. Dressing: shake all ingredients in a jar with a lid. Photo shows the salad without the dressing.

Serves 4

Hot Smoked Salmon & Pea Salad

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Peas are pretty much the only vegetable I always buy frozen. We don’t grow our own peas as they would take up too much room in our vegetable garden. In Australia you rarely see fresh peas in the supermarkets or vegetable shops.

To be honest I reckon frozen peas aren’t at all bad. Not the same as fresh peas but a pretty good substitute.

This tasty salad will appeal to fans of peas as it’s the main ingredient.

3 cups frozen peas
250-300g hot smoked salmon
1 clove garlic, crushed
A handful of chopped fresh parsley or mint or a mixture
4 radishes, sliced then halved
80g soft goat’s cheese (I used Danish feta) crumbled
12 cocktail tomatoes, halved or quartered, depending on size
2-3 spring onions, finely sliced
2 Tbs olive oil
Juice of 1 lemon or ½ a large lemon
Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Cook peas in boiling salted water for 4 minutes, then drain. Place in a large bowl with the salmon, broken into flakes, skin discarded. Add remaining ingredients, mix and serve.

Serves 4-6

Quinoa Salad

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This healthy quinoa salad can be made in no time and adapted to include what you have on hand. I used some Tri-Colour Quinoa from Costco, but ordinary white quinoa will do. Serve this salad alone or with grilled chicken or fish.

2 cups cooked and drained quinoa (measure after cooking)
Finely grated rind and juice of 1 large lemon
¼ cup olive oil
1 Tbs honey
1 tsp mustard (Dijon or English)
¾ tsp salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 Lebanese cucumber thickly sliced and quartered
½ cup lightly toasted nuts (pistachios, pine nuts, cashews)
½ cup crumbled feta cheese (or substitute a creamy goat cheese)
1/3 cup thinly sliced red onion
1/3 cup coarsely chopped parsley
½ cup coarsely chopped fresh mint

Mix all ingredients together in a salad bowl and serve.

Serves 4

Variations: add some halved cocktail tomatoes, small broccoli or cauliflower florets. Use sliced spring onions instead of red onion. If you like things a bit spicy, add one small red chilli, seeds removed and finely sliced. Add some sweetcorn kernels, fresh, frozen or canned. Add drained and rinsed canned beans instead of chickpeas.

Loaded Baked Sweet Potatoes

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After a hard class at the gym, my friend Allison gave me this recipe as we sipped our almond milk, extra-hot, cappuccinos. She said she had found it on Instagram and it was delicious, which it indeed was.

2 sweet potatoes (4 if small)
Extra virgin olive oil
½ tsp dried sage or 2 tsp fresh sage, finely chopped
Salt
Chickpeas:
1 can chickpeas, rinsed and drained
1 Tbs olive oil
1 tsp garlic salt
Topping:
1/3 cup pecan nuts
2 sprigs fresh rosemary, chopped
1 tsp olive oil
1 tsp maple syrup
good pinch of salt
1/3 cup cranberries or dried cherries
¼ cup goat’s cheese or creamy feta
1/3 cup rocket, baby spinach or shredded larger spinach leaves (in photo)
Dressing:
1 Tbs tahini
1½ Tbs American-style yellow mustard
1 tsp balsamic vinegar
¼ tsp garlic salt
Freshly ground black pepper
2 tsp water
Garnish:
Balsamic glaze and olive oil to drizzle around

Line two oven trays with baking paper and preheat the oven to 200°C. Wash and dry the sweet potatoes, brush them with oil and sprinkle them with salt. Place them on one of the trays and bake for 30 mins. Move the sweet potatoes over a bit and tip the rinsed and drained chickpeas onto the tray next to them. Return to the oven for 10 minutes, then drizzle the chickpeas with the oil and sprinkle with the garlic salt. Mix them a bit, then return to the oven for 10 more minutes.

In a bowl, miix the pecans with the rosemary, oil, maple syrup and salt. Bake on the other paper-lined tray for 6-7 minutes then cool.

Roughly chop the cranberries and place in a bowl with the crumbled goat cheese and the finely shredded rocket or spinach. When the pecan nuts are cool, roughly chop them and add to the bowl.

Place all ingredients for the dressing in a jar with a lid and shake vigorously. If the tahini is a bit stiff, mash it with a fork before adding it to the jar.

To serve, cut sweet potatoes in half lengthwise and place in serving dish. Press down on each half with a fork to mash the flesh a bit. Tip the chickpeas over the sweet potatoes, dividing equally. Drizzle with the dressing, then top with the topping mix. If liked, garnish with a drizzle of balsamic glaze and olive oil.

Serves 4

Fennel Radish & Apple Salad

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This recipe is my interpretation of a delicious, light salad I enjoyed at Thyme to Taste cafe in Yass recently. I sliced everything using the thin slicing attachment on my Magimix food processor. You could also use a mandoline or a sharp knife, but the Magimix does it in a jiffy.

1 head fennel including the fronds (keep some to garnish)
1 apple, quartered and cored but not peeled
1 bunch of radishes
¾ cup pecan nuts or walnuts
1 Tbs maple syrup (optional)
1 cup chopped parsley
½ cup salad dressing
Juice of ½ a lemon

Thinly slice the fennel, apple and radishes and place in a salad bowl. Place the pecan nuts in a small frying pan and cook over moderate heat for a few minutes, stirring. If liked, add the maple syrup and stir till they are coated and glazed. Cool then roughly chop into large pieces and add to the salad bowl with the remaining ingredients. Garnish with some fennel fronds.

Serves 4-6