Recipes
Summer Salads
Our Top 3 Summer Salad Recipes
29 Nov 2019 | Alison Roman | George Calombaris | Charlie Carrington
Nothing rounds out a summer barbeque like a great salad – and luckily enough our new recipe books are full of delicious ideas that will make your salads the star of the meal. These salads have just the right amount of crispy/crunchy/creamy texture, the perfect balance of tartness and sweetness, a pinch of spice and loads of bright, appealing colour. Bon appétit!
SALAD 1: SALTED CITRUS SALAD WITH FENNEL, RADISH, AND OLIVE
BY ALISON ROMAN
Everyone needs a good citrus salad in their life, and this is a very good one. Sure, citrus is soft, but I would definitely call this a ‘Crunchy Salad’, as there is plenty of fennel and radish to make up for any softness going on, I assure you. Since we don’t all live in a place where there is access to flawless citrus year-round, you must act and react to whatever you’ve got. There is absolutely no shame in correcting the balance of tart and sweet in your citrus with things like honey and additional juice from lemons or limes!
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| INGREDIENTS
30 g Castelvetrano or oil-cured black olives, pitted and crushed 60 ml olive oil 4 tangerines, or 2 oranges or blood oranges (or a mix), peeled and sliced into 5 mm rounds, seeds removed kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper honey, to taste 2 tablespoons lemon or lime juice, plus extra to taste 1 fennel bulb, trimmed and thinly sliced lengthways 1 small watermelon radish, very thinly sliced (or 4 regular radishes, thinly sliced) |
METHOD Combine the olives and olive oil in a small bowl; set aside. Place the citrus slices on a large serving plate or platter. Season with salt, pepper, and then a little honey or splash of lemon juice as needed to make sure everything is tasting as sweet, sour and balanced as possible. Toss the fennel, radish and the 2 tablespoons lemon juice in a medium bowl; season with salt and pepper, adding more lemon juice and salt as needed to make the vegetables very tangy and almost too salty. Top the citrus with the fennel mixture and spoon the olive mixture over all of that. Finish with lots of black pepper. |
SALAD 2: ANCIENT GRAIN SALAD 2.0
BY GEORGE CALOMBARIS
This new version of our very popular ancient grain salad has pretty much exactly the same ingredients as the original. The difference here is that the grains are sprouted – on paper, like with those science experiments at school. The sprouted grains give the salad an amazing alive flavour. They’re also really good for your guts. I think this salad is popular because it tastes good and it’s good for you, but it’s also got this crispy/crunchy/creamy texture that I reckon Australians love. We’ve become texture junkies, and this salad gives you all of that in one mouthful. You will need to start the sprouting 4 days in advance.
TIP: If you don’t want the sprouted version of this recipe, just cook the lentils in 1.25 litres water for 15 minutes, then add the quinoa and cook for a further 15 minutes. Drain and cool completely.
Recipe extracted from Just George by George Calombaris
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|
INGREDIENTS 200 g white quinoa, rinsed and drained 185 g puy lentils, rinsed and drained 250 g thick, Greek-style yoghurt 1 teaspoon cumin seeds, toasted and ground 1 tablespoon honey bunch of coriander (cilantro), leaves finely shredded bunch of flat-leaf (Italian parsley, finely shredded bunch of spring onions, trimmed and very thinly sliced 35 g toasted pistachio nuts 40 g toasted blanched almonds, roughly chopped 30 g toasted sunflower kernels 30 g baby capers 35 g currants 2 tablespoons sherry vinegar 125 ml extra-virgin olive oil seeds from 1 pomegranate, to serve |
METHOD Place the quinoa and lentils in a clean bowl and cover with cold water. Cover with a clean, disposable cloth and place in a cool, dark place for 12 hours. Drain the quinoa and lentils through a fine-mesh sieve and rinse well. Place the sieve over a suitable container, cover with a clean, damp cloth and return to the dark, cool place. Repeat this step each day for 4 days or until sprouted. Drain, rinse well and spread out to dry on a tray lined with paper towel. Mix the yoghurt, cumin and honey until combined and refrigerate until needed. In a medium bowl, combine the sprouted lentils and quinoa with all the remaining ingredients, except the pomegranate. Mix well and season to taste. Place on a serving dish and top with the pomegranate seeds and serve with the cumin yoghurt. |
SALAD 3: CABBAGE AND UCHUCUTA COLESLAW
BY CHARLIE CARRINGTON
Bored with making the same old coleslaw? You won’t be with this recipe! Uchucuta, which means ‘ground chilli’ in the Quechua language, is a vivid green, spicy salsa-like sauce. (Tip: it’s great to whack on fish, meat and eggs, so make a double batch and keep some in the fridge or freezer.) Huacatay (Peruvian black mint paste) is an amazing Andean sauce that can be bought online.
Recipe is extracted from The Atlas Cookbook by Charlie Carrington
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| INGREDIENTS
1 small red cabbage, shaved thinly 3 carrots, julienned on a mandoline 3 celery stalks, sliced 1 tablespoon salt ½ bunch mint to garnish ½ bunch spring onions (scallions), chopped as thinly as possible to garnish UCHUCUTA 1 jalapeño, deseeded 1 small cucumber, roughly chopped 2 teaspoons black mint paste (huacatay) or a few mint leaves ¼ red onion, roughly chopped ¼ bunch coriander (cilantro), leaves picked 100 ml milk |
METHOD
Combine the cabbage, carrots and celery in a large bowl, sprinkle with the salt and leave for 15 minutes to soften and draw out some water. To make the uchucuta sauce, in a blender blitz the ingredients to a fine purée. Put the vegetables in a strainer and rinse with cold water to remove the salt. Squeeze them out in a clean tea towel (dish towel). Mound the vegetables on the plate, drizzle with the uchucuta sauce, then garnish with the mint and spring onion. |
