Here’s the recipe for the final dish of my Turkish lunch. For those of you not familiar with Purslane or Verdolaga as it is called here in Spain and have vegetable gardens, it is a salad plant that is well worth cultivating as it is succulent even in the hottest months. You only have to sow it once and let it go to seed, then it will appear every summer.
In Turkey a particularly large leafed variety has been developed, and its leaves are regularly made into a salad with just goats milk yoghurt and salt. If you can’t get hold of Purslane, then substitute Corn Salad (Canónigos), or Watercress.
For 4 portions
1 large black aubergine
purslane or corn salad
2 large black figs – diced
2 tablespoons finely diced sweet onions
juice of 1/2 lemon
sea salt
2 -3 tablespoons goats yoghurt or vegan yoghurt
Either roast or microwave the aubergine until soft. If you have never cooked an aubergine in the microwave, it is a good fast way to get soft creamy flesh. Prick the aubergine all over with a fork to prevent it bursting while cooking. Cook on a high setting for a couple of minutes, then turn and cook for a couple more minutes. Keep doing this until you can feel that it is soft all the way through.
Leave the aubergine to cool, then cut it into quarters lengthways, remove the flesh discarding the skins and dice the flesh.
Put the flesh in a large salad bowl with the rest of the ingredients and mix well.
As promised the recipe for the bulgur wheat salad that was part of my Turkish lunch.
Makes 4 generous portions
150 grams bulgur wheat
80 ml boiling water
200 grams grated soft tomato flesh
1 tomato – cut into small cubes
1/2 cucumber – peeled and cut into small cubes
2 tablespoons finely chopped spring onions
1 tablespoon pomegranate molasses
1 tablespoon extra virgin olive oil
fresh green chilli – finely chopped – to taste
salt and freshly ground black pepper
sprigs of fresh basil roughly chopped
black olives to garnish
Start to prepare the salad a couple of hours before you plan to eat.
Put the wheat in a large bowl and pour over the boiling water. Stir to mix well and leave to soak for five minutes.
Next grate in the tomato. I had a nice big beef tomato that had gone soft and watery. Cut the tomato in half across its equator and the grate the flesh side on a coarse grater, seeds included, until you are left with just the skin in your hand. Bin the skin.
Mix the tomato into the wheat and leave to steep for 20 minutes.
Add the rest of the ingredients except the olives and basil and mix well.
Leave to steep until you are ready to serve.
Put the salad in your serving dish and decorate with olives and basil. Enjoy 😊
When I cook for my friends I quite often like to have a theme to the dishes, so once I’d decided on Chicken Burritos as a main course for this particular lunch, I was looking for something to have as an appetiser. There are generally frozen prawns in the freezer, so why not mix them with typical South American salads, tomatoes, peppers, sweetcorn, add a spicy sauce sharpened with lime juice and have a prawn cocktail?
My guests loved it!
Per person
8 large prawns in their shells
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 tablespoon quinoa – black or red look good, but if you have neither then the white is fine
1 tablespoon diced green pepper
1 tablespoon diced red pepper
1 tablespoon sweetcorn kernels
1/2 small avocado diced
Lettuce leaves to decorate your dishes
For the dressing
1 small clove of garlic
Fresh red chilli – finely chopped
1 teaspoon finely chopped fresh coriander leaves or the same of green coriander seeds
zest and juice of 1/2 a small lime
Boil the quinoa until tender.
Drain and put in a bowl with the rest of the salad ingredients.
Peel the prawns reserving the heads and skins.
Fry the prawns in olive oil until just cooked. Remove to a plate and let cool.
To the same pan add the heads and skins. Fry gently squashing the juices out of the heads with a wooden spatula.
Once the prawn heads are cooked and have given out their juices, add the coconut milk and water. Mix well scraping any solid bits at the bottom of the pan into the liquid and squashing the the heads again to add yet more flavour to the dressing.
Let cook down a little and then take off the heat.
With a pestle and mortar crush the garlic, chilli and coriander with a pinch of salt.
Strain the dressing into the mortar and then mix well.
Add the lime zest and juice, mix again, then add the dressing and cooled prawns to the salad and mix to cover all with the dressing.
Line your serving dishes with leaves and pile on the cocktail.
I made this to have with the Potato and Chickpea Cakes in the previous post using ingredients that are currently in season here. Fragrant green peppers from the huerta, this years almonds which I love dry toasted in their skins, big winter radishes and plum tomatoes from the local market.
You will need –
Several leaves of red oak leaved lettuce
2 medium tomatoes – chopped into chunks
2 samall or 1 large green pepper
about 20 whole almonds – either with skins or if you prefer without
1 large cooked beetroot – cut into smallish cubes
Winter radish – about 20 thin slices
2 tablespoons cider vinegar
2 tablesoons water
1 teaspoon honey or agave syrup
2 tablespoons extra virgen olive oil
Start by steeping the radishes. The large winter radishes can be quite peppery, so a sweet marinade will make them less so. Mix the vinegar water and honey or syrup in small bowl, then add the radishes. Leave to marinate for at least ten minutes.
Meanwhile dry toast the almonds in a thick based pan over a low heat. Stir regularly to ensure that they are evenly toasted and a little browned. Remove from the heat and put to one side.
Rip up the lettuce leaves and arrange them on a large plate, then add the chopped tomatoes.
slice the green peppers and arrange on the salad.
Remove the radish slices from their marinade and arrange them over the salad.
Put the beetroot in the marinade and stir to cover all the cubes.
Spoon the cubes and vinegar over the salad, then sprinkle on the almonds.
One of my fellow gardening friends has given me a cauliflower he has grown, and it’s the tastiest most tender cauliflower I have eaten in a long time. I blanched some of the florets in boiling water for a minute, before draining them and adding the florets to a mixed salad the other day, which is when I discovered how exceptionally tasty they were. So today I thought to make them the stars of a salad to accompany some Onion Bhaji.
Half a cauliflower – cut into even sized florets
2 tablespoons desiccated coconut
2 tablespoons almond flakes
2 tablespoons peanut or olive oil
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
1 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 sweet onion – sliced
2 cloves of garlic – finely chopped
1 small green chilli – finely chopped
1/4 teaspoon turmeric
Salt and pepper
1 tablespoon lime juice
fresh chopped coriander or green coriander seeds
Put the cauliflower florets in a bowl and cover generously with boiling water. Leave to steep for 2-3 minutes then drain. Leave to cool a little.
Put the coconut in a thick based frying pan on a low heat to toast, stirring from time to time. It will suddenly start to brown so don’t be tempted to wander off as I did once. When it has started to brown stir constantly until the coconut is an even golden brown colour, then tip the coconut onto a plate to cool.
Add the almond flakes to the same pan and toast these. Again to a golden brown colour an the tip onto the plate with the coconut.
Again using the same pan, put the 2 tablespoons of oil into the pan, and then the mustard and cumin seeds. Fry for a minute or two until the seeds start to pop.
Add the onions, chilli and garlic and fry gently until soft. Add the turmeric and stir to mix.
If there is enough room in the pan, add the cauliflower florets, or add the contents of the pan to the florets in a bowl. Stir to mix well.
Add the coconut and almonds and mix again. Season with salt, pepper, chopped coriander or seeds and lime juice.
Although the vegetables in this dish are cooked, you stop the cooking while they still have some crunch, so it’s like a warm spicy salad, which is just as good when left to go cold.
For 2 portions
1/2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/2 teaspoon coriander seeds
1/2 teaspoon kalonji/onion seeds
peanut or olive oil
1/2 onion – sliced
4 cloves garlic – finely chopped
1/2 fresh green chilli – finely chopped
1/4 red pepper – cut into small squares
1/4 cabbage – finely sliced
Small head of broccoli – broken into florets
1 teaspoon garam masala
1/4 teaspoon ground turmeric
salt and freshly ground black pepper
Heat a tablespoon of oil in a shallow pan and when hot add the whole cumin, coriander and kalonji. Fry until they start to pop and release their flavour.
Add the onion, garlic, red pepper and chilli. Fry for five minutes.
Add the cabbage and broccoli. Stir well to coat with the onions and spices.
Season with the garam masala, salt and pepper.
Cover and continue cooking until the cabbage has wilted. Add just enough water to cover the bottom of the pan by about half a centimetre.
Cover and continue cooking, stirring from time to time, for around ten minutes until the vegetables are cooked but still with some bite.
In this summer heat, lunch for your friends wants to be a light and fresh affair, Watermelon Gazpacho followed by three salads served with freshly homemade bread. To finish a small pot each of intense dark chocolate sorbet and crispy ginger biscuits.
BEETROOT & RADICCIO SALAD WITH PURPLE BASIL
The beetroot was roasted for an hour with whole cloves of garlic, a generous splash of balsamic vinegar, sprigs of fresh oregano and olive oil, season well with sea salt and freshly ground pepper. Let the beetroot cool before mixing with shredded chicory and purple basil leaves.
LENTIL & POMEGRANATE SALAD WITH FRESH CORIANDER
His salad is cooked green lentils, a good amount of the little pomegranate jewels that I have plenty of in the garden this year, then finely chopped cucumber, tomatoes and celery. Add a generous amount of roughly chopped coriander leaves and dress lightly with lime juice and olive oil.
I’m a fan of soaking dried grains so that when you come to cooking the grains are already re moistened in the centre, and so require less cooking. Pour boiling water over the lentils and leave an hour or so to steep before cooking until just tender. Drain the lentils and let them cool before adding them to the salad.
SALAD OF FRESH FIGS, ROASTED RED ONIONS AND HAZELNUTS
This is a Yotam Ottolengi recipe which has a lovely contrast of flavours with the sweet roasted red onions and figs, and the peppery watercress and rocket. His recipe uses radiccio rather than rocket, but as I have both I decided that the more peppery rocket suited this recipe better. I was surprised to find that what I thought was weeds in my vegetable patch is actually rocket, and it hasn’t become overly peppery in the strong Spanish heat. I haven’t used roasted red onions in a salad before, and I have to say, I’m a total convert. I shall be roasting a tray full regularly so that I have them at the ready in the fridge.
This amount serves 4
2 small red onions – peel them and cut each into 6 wedges
50 grams hazelnuts with skin / or ready dry roasted unseasoned hazelnuts
1/2 small head of radicchio / or a similar amount of rocket
good bunch of fresh basil – either the green or purple
bunch of watercress with the stems removed
6 ripe fresh figs, cut into quarters
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
Roast the onions drizzled with olive oil at 180 C for 30 minutes. Leave to cool.
If you are roasting hazelnuts, turn the oven down to 140, and once it has reached this temperature, spread the hazelnuts in a shallow pan and roast for 20 minutes. Leave to cool then break up into pieces with a pestle and mortar. If you are using the ready roasted hazelnuts break these up as above.
To put the salad together, start with the leaves, rip them into pieces and put in a large bowl, add the onions and figs.
Dress with the oil and vinegar and gently toss. I like to do this with my hands as it’s more gentle than using implements.
After the, for southern Spain, very wet spring that we have had, all the fruit trees have super abundant crops this year. The little pomegranate tree must have at least 70 fruits on it , the ripest of which are splitting open. With so many fruits they are small, I should have thinned them out earlier in the season, and the jewelled seeds are small and not so sweet but so tasty, and lovely for salads.
I like to soak the buckwheat in cold water overnight in which case it only takes five minutes to cook in salted water, but if you haven’t time to soak it, don’t worry, it will just take 10 – 15 minutes longer to become tender.
Once just cooked, drain the buckwheat and let it cool.
Peel the cucumber and cut into small dice.
Cut the green pepper, tomato, avocado, onion, and celery into small dice. Put into a salad bowl with the cucumber and cooled buckwheat.
Add the salad leaves and coarser chopped basil leaves. Mix well.
Dress the salad with the olive oil, lime juice and cider vinegar.
This Indonesian salad dressed with the satay sauce from my pervious post, is perfect summer eating. Like many salads its an assembly rather than a recipe. Gado Gado means mix mix, so there are core ingredients that make it typical, and then the variable ingredients depending on the season and what you have in your vegetable garden or fridge.
The core ingredients –
Boiled eggs
Tofu or tempeh – lightly fried in sesame oil with garlic and ginger
potatoes or sweet potatoes – cut into long pieces and steamed
prawn crackers
The rest of the ingredients can be either cooked or raw, choose a variety for both their flavours and colour. Today I had –
french beans – steamed
green asparagus – lightly steamed
sweet corn slices – lightly steamed
edename beans – I buy these frozen and ready blanched
red and green peppers – cut into strips
cucumber – cut into strips
carrots – peeled and cut into strips
tomatoes – cut into thin wedges
Other ingredients that would work well together are –
bean sprouts
broccoli florets – lightly steamed
Any of the green leaves – pak Choi, mizuna, radicchio would add a nice slight bitterness, spinach
radishes
Fresh coriander and basil
Have your satay sauce on the side to spoon onto the salad and to dip into as you eat.
This Indonesian salad, as with the tofu fritters in the previous post, is from Sri Owen. As with most salads, you can vary the ingredients depending on what you have available that fits with the style of the salad.
I have used –
cucumber – peeled and cut into long wedges
red peppers – cut into long strips
red cabbage – finely shredded and blanched in boiling water for 1 minute
edename beans – I’d got cooked frozen ones that I defrosted
cooked mung beans
Other options are –
radishes
carrots – cut into fine julienne
beansprouts
french beans – lightly cooked
chinese cabbage – shredded and blanched
broccoli florets – blanched
For the dressing –
2 tablespoons very finely chopped fresh coconut
2 tablespoons thick coconut milk
1/2 teaspoon finely chopped fresh red chilli
1/2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh mint
1/2 tablespoon finely chopped fresh basil
juice of 1/2 a lime
1/4 tablespoon brown sugar
salt to taste
Mix all the dressing ingredients together and then add them to the salad and mix well.
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