No, it's not a solitary, meagre 30g of salad, but what I thought I might rather catchily call a '30g' salad if, you guessed it, I used 30g of all the ingredients. As you'll see, though, it didn't quite work like that, partly because 30g of chick peas just seemed to measily, but I managed a pretty delicious lunch based on 30g or multiples thereof.
And yes, I am trying to lose some weight, and yes, along with the rest of the world, I'm regretting the excesses of Christmas. My clothes are getting too tight, and frankly, I need to shed a few pounds because I can't afford to buy new clothes. Also, there's a small matter of a 25 year school reunion coming up. 25 years. Since I left school (if it was 25 years since I'd started school, I wouldn't be feeling so positively old about it all). And while I am perfectly happy with who I am & what I look like (mostly) these days, I have a definite sense of impending assessment. I know that it absolutely shouldn't matter one jot what my erstwhile classmates think of me these days - but deep down (actually, not that deep down), I do.
There's also the small matter of aging (as evidenced by the 25 year reunion issue) and the fact that I want to remain healthy and fit for a good long while - and no one else is going to do that for me.
So while I'm not jumping on any particular dietary bandwagon (been there, done that, mostly failed miserably), I'm trying to eat a bit better, embrace the leafy greens in my life. Count a few calories and do more exercise. Lock down the peanut butter.
Salad can be a bit tedious, truth be told, and so I've had to re-approach the subject with a bit of imagination. Of course, salad doesn't have to mean 'leaves', but I am quite fond of leaves provided they are punchy in terms of flavour and texture. I love good watercress - used to eat armfuls of it in Hampshire where it's native and readily available. Rocket is also something I'm partial to, and I'm looking forward to the summer to get some of our own salad growing again. In the meantime, I'm always on the look out for other interesting leaves. Kale is very much the leaf of the moment, and Florette Salad are producing baby kale as a new leaf, and have a website for lots of interesting baby kale recipes to try out - leafy greens are so good for you and if they pack a flavour punch too as I suspect a good baby kale leaf should, well that's pretty much sold it to me.
Anyway, I couldn't find any baby kale out here on the edge of the western world (the supply chain obviously hasn't got this far yet!), so I made this salad with watercress, spinach and rocket which is one of my favourite combos. As & when baby kale hits Cardigan (or we get some growing in the garden) I'll try it in this. Chick peas are one of my favourite pulses, and a bit of tuna fish is good for a protein hit. And do check out the pomegranate molasses in the dressing!
Just a little note - the dressing is for a much larger bowlful of salad - possibly for 4 people, I'd say, while the salad ingredients here are for one. So use about 3 tsp of the dressing for your plateful of salad and save the rest for another lunchtime.
And if you were interested, or following the 5:2 diet, this plateful comes to 240 calories. Not bad.
'30g' Salad
For the salad
30g bagged watercress, spinach and rocket salad - or use a combination of your favourite leaves
30g sliced raw mushroom
30g sliced raw red pepper
60g drained chick peas
60g (drained weight) tuna in spring water
For the dressing
3 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp pomegranate molasses
1 tsp harissa paste
1 tbsp rapeseed oil
Combine the salad ingredients on a plate or in a bowl, and put any leftovers in the fridge straight away in appropriate storage containers to prevent more 'accidentally' slipping on to your plate.
Stir together the dressing ingredients.
Drizzle about 3 tsp of the dressing over your plateful of salad.
Consume.
By the way, this doesn't mean that there won't be any more cake here, there just might be a bit less. At least until after 28th February...
This post was sponsored by Florette Salad
We all like to eat beautiful food. I'm not very talented in the presentation department, but occasionally, with a bit of effort, you know, I can produce something that looks reasonable as well as tasting good.
The answer appears to be flowers.
I got a gorgeous little packet of violas in my veg box the other week - that's what I love about getting my veg from a truly local outfit - a family run farm a couple of miles away. The monthly newsletter that came with that particular box included the following:
"We always have blocks of different colour lettuce but this year we are also growing viola, calendula, cornflower and borage for salads..."
How exciting!
We had a glut of eggs, and try as I might, there's only so much cake you can bake. Pink and her eggy bread addiction helped, but I was fighting a constant battle as all 5 chickens were laying every day...
One of my summer stand bys is a very straightforward salad that once started off as a River Cottage idea - probably from one of the first books, where you 'soft hard boil' eggs, so they are still a bit squidgy in the yolk, then serve with a fairly plain salad of crispy lettuce, and a vinaigrette type dressing (by which I mean whatever combination of oil & vinegar plus a little mustard takes your fancy).
We have loads of lettuce in the garden too - so it was a very local meal - apart from the olive oil and cider vinegar that went in the dressing, of course, and some toasted pumpkin seeds and pistachios that I added - a handful of each - and so, so pretty.
I think I will be tempted to put more flowers in my food from now on.
There's no recipe, I'm afraid - you honestly don't need one. The eggs are something I do by eye but roughly, put them all in a pan of cold water, bring to the boil and boil for 6-7 minutes depending on size which ensures hard whites, but ever so slightly soft yolks.
The lettuce should be crispy and wash it well, especially it's from your garden or organic veg box (they may prove that it's organic, but no one wants a slug in their tea...) - use little gems if you don't have any thing else.
A handful each of pumpkin seeds and pistachio nuts dry toasted in a frying pan adds extra crunch and interest.
I learnt my vinaigrette ratios in France, and although I can never quite remember, I usually use about 3:1 oil to vinegar, and then taste massively. Dijon mustard is good, may be a pinch of sugar; salt and pepper...
Scatter with pretty flowers and sigh at the loveliness..
.
I'm not a great charity shop shopper. I do go in and buy things - I've found our local Hospice shop to be a great source of hardly worn Boden clothes, for one thing, but I'm not one of those passionate thrift shoppers. The Husband loves nothing more than spending hours mooching round second hand shops and antique markets, but it's not my thing.
However, recently, I have been pleased to discover a few lovely things for the kitchen (or rather, the table) in the same hospice shop I mentioned just before. Don't panic, this is not suddenly going to morph into a blog about 'old tat' shops, but isn't this serving plate lovely?
So far, I've used it for cheese and also for a cake (I mean once the cake was on the plate, you couldn't see the fish), but the other evening, I made a smoked mackerel salad and for once, I felt like not only was the food lovely, but I had absolutely the right thing to serve it on.
Doesn't happen to me often.
This started off life as a Good Food lunchbox idea but as the Husband mused when he read the recipe after we'd eaten "You changed it?". But of course.
Smoked Mackerel Salad with yoghurt, horseradish & dill dressing
8 spears of long 'tender stem' brocoli
200g sugar snap peas (cringe, they had been imported from a long way)
3/4 bag of watercress, rocket and spinach salad
2 smoked mackerel fillets, skinned
150ml low fat natural yoghurt
2 tsps horseradish sauce
juice of half a lemon
about a tablespoon of finely chopped dill
Quickly steam the brocoli and peas till they are cooked but still have bite. It really won't take long. Run them under the cold tap quickly to refresh.
Spread your salad leaves over a beautiful, thriftily sourced, serving dish (or on individual plates), then artfully arrange the cooked brocoli and peas around ad through the leaves, Flake over the smoked mackerel.
Make up the dressing by mixing together the yoghurt, horseradish and lemon juice, and stir through most of the dill. Drizzle this over your plateful of salad, and scatter the remaining dill over the top.
The dill gave the dressing a lovely flavour so I am also entering this into Karen's lovely Herbs on Saturday challenge, hosted this month on Bangers & Mash
UA-44695690-1
