Recipe 21 & 22: Greek Salad with Lemon dressing

I love summer, nothing like vitamin D, a tan and summer fruit and vegetables. I also seem to be ok with dealing with greens.

Recipe number twenty one, (187 to go!) is one of the quickest salads ever and still is quite filling, so can be used as a main. Although Jamie Oliver deems it "Greek Salad"  I don't believe its exactly kosher.... it has Greek feta and olives- that's about it.

I have made this now twice and slightly different both times. Word of warning though, do not make it 1hr advance of your dinner party, otherwise it turns everything soggy :(

Avocado and Feta Salad

2 tomatoes
1 avocado
1 spanish onion
1 tsp dried oregano
Red wine vinegar
Olive oil
Handful of pitted olives
1 lemon
about 200g Feta Cheese
Lettuce mix (or Cos lettuce)
1/4 Ciabatta loaf *optional see step 5*

METHOD

1. Peel, stone and avocado. Cut into wedges and place in a bowl with squeezed half of a lemon. Cut the tomatoes erratically into 1cm shapes, finely dice the shallot.
2. Put the tomatoes, shallot, oregano with the avocado, splash with vinegar, a glug of olive oil, salt and pepper. Set aside for 5 minutes
3. Rinse the lettuce mix and either put on separate plates or on one platter. Sprinkle the pitted olives onto the salad, spoon the avocado and tomato mix on, crumb feta cheese over. Toss the salad lightly.
4. Just prior to serving, drizzle the vinegar mix over the salad and with the second half of the lemon spritz the salad. Or alternatively serve with the lemon dressing (recipe 22)
5. *To add a little bit of carbs, grill slices of ciabatta with olive oil and either serve on the side or, wait till cool and then crumb over the salad (if you decide to crumb the bread, I would recommend preparing it just after step 1.)

Lemon Dressing

1 Lemon

Olive Oil

Salt and Pepper

METHOD

1. squeeze a whole lemon into a jug and then add olive oil - double that of what was squeezed from the lemon. e.g. if you squeeze 50ml of lemon juice, use 100ml of olive oil.
2. Taste and then add Salt and Pepper to taste.

Note: it will separate after a few hours, just shake before serving.

Recipe 20: Potato and Horseradish Salad

I got stuck into cleaning out the pantry today. Its been a mess for so long, full of bits and pieces that are in no particular order and so much so that we have doubled even tripled some ingredients like gravox (seriously, who needs 3 packets of the stuff? We make gravy only once every 3 months or so!). After doing that, I turned to our fridge and was not surprised to find so many bottles of pickled ingredients right at the back, but also resting amongst the piles of pickled onions, chargrilled capsicums was none other than 1/4 of a jar of horseradish cream- something that I had become somewhat addicted to during my pregnancy.
Being 30c, I realised that there was no way I could cook something hot.
With untold bags of new potatoes and Jamie Oliver behind me I set out to make a potato salad that would go with the beef roast strips that were resting in the fridge.

Potato and Horseradish Salad

680g new potatoes (I used 8 new potatoes)
salt and pepper
juice of 2 lemons
1/2 a celery heart, keep the small yellow leaves but with the stalks chopped finely
a bunch of flat leaved parsley, leaves picked and chopped
2-3 tsp grated horseradish (I used 1/4 jar of horse radish cream- which worked well instead)
3 heaped tblsp sourcream
a bunch of fresh tarragon leaves
extra virgin olive oil


METHOD

1. Chop the new potatoes into small pieces, boil the new potatoes in a pot of salted water until nicely cooked. Drain them and allow to cool for 5 minutes.
2. Pour most of the lemon juice into a large bowl and add a good pinch of salt and some freshly ground pepper, the chopped celery, parsley and horseradish.
3. Mix in the sour cream into the mixture, have a taste and if needed add more lemon juice.
4. Add the potatoes and mix well.

Serve with the roast beef, spoon on the potato salad and then for looks, garnish with the celery and tarragon leaves and drizzle with a little olive oil.

Nom, Nom, Nom, Best Potato salad I have ever made (but then again the first one I have made!)

Recipe 1: Orange and Sesame Salad

First Recipe of 2011 and what better than a nice summer salad- It is also one thing I seem to be OK at. Unfortunately no photo of this one, I am sure I will make it again soon, so perhaps I can update it at a later date.

This is one of the husbands favourites, due to him being a complete citrus freak!I have a feeling there will be a few citrus recipes in this blog... but who knows, perhaps there will be another common denominator. I am excited about this challenge, although I am not sure whether I am going to be able to knock off 208 recipes this year. It's almost impossible, considering I will be back full time at work in less than 3 months and when at home will have my son to look after. All I can do is see how it pans out.

Orange and Sesame Salad 

serves approximately 6 depending on the amount of lettuce

Salad:

2 Lebanese Cucumbers

200g Snow Peas (ends removed and blanched)

200g Capsicum

2 Spring onions

1/2 Red Onion

2 Oranges

20 Black Olives, pitted.

Lettuce

1 tblsp Sesame seeds, toasted

Dressing

2 tblsp virgin Olive oil

2 tsp crushed Ginger 

1 tsp crushed Garlic

Zest and juice of 1 Orange

METHOD 

1. Chop Capsicum, Red and Spring Onion, Cucumber and Snow peas. Toss all items in to bowl with lettuce and olives. Peel and segment two Oranges and add these to the bowl lightly toss again. Sprinkle sesame seeds over the top.
2. Combine the ingredients of the Dressing together, mix well

Add the dressing to the salad just prior to serving. 

When I am just making this for me and my husband I use the same amount in the dressing, but I half the salad ingredients.