Tag Archives: salad

Exotic coleslaw

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Exotic coleslaw
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This is a lovely way to make a plain coleslaw slightly more sexy. This slaw makes a great lunch when paired with some cold chicken. It is a great side dish with grilled fish or chicken. Although you can make this dish fresh, it tastes best if you make the salad 1 day in advance and garnish it before serving.
Servings Prep Time
2-4 people 15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2-4 people 15 minutes
Exotic coleslaw
Print Recipe
This is a lovely way to make a plain coleslaw slightly more sexy. This slaw makes a great lunch when paired with some cold chicken. It is a great side dish with grilled fish or chicken. Although you can make this dish fresh, it tastes best if you make the salad 1 day in advance and garnish it before serving.
Servings Prep Time
2-4 people 15 minutes
Servings Prep Time
2-4 people 15 minutes
Ingredients
Dressing
Garnish
Servings: people
Instructions
Making the salad
  1. Slice and grate all the veg.
  2. Mix the ingredients of your dressing. Taste and season to taste. Add more lime juice if needed.
  3. Mix the veg and the dressing thoroughly. Ideally, you let the salad stand in your fridge for 24 hours.
Just before serving
  1. Chop the koriander leaves. Mix half of the leaves through the salad.
  2. Place the salad on a large serving dish and sprinkle with the remaining koriander and pomegranate seeds.
Recipe Notes

This makes a great barbeque side dish. Find more barbeque ideas here.

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Crunchy kohlrabi slaw

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This is coleslaw with a twist. I love preparing a large batch of any type of coleslaw. I bring it to work, serve it as a side dish with some fried chicken (like chicken fingers) or with our barbecues in the summer.

Kohlrabi1

The kohlrabi has both great crunch and lovely subtle cabbage flavor. It pears great with the apple and the fresh dressing. It can be prepared day(s) in advance, making it a practical dish too!

Kohlrabi slaw

  • 2 kohlrabi, sliced in match sticks, or coarsely grated
  • 1 large apple, in match sticks
  • 2 handfuls of walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 1 handful of parsly, sliced in fine slivers
  • 1 handful of mint leaves, sliced in fine slivers
  • Dressing:
    • 1 tbsp mustard
    • 2 tbsp good quality mayo (or even homemade mayo)
    • Juice of 1 lemon
    • 2 tbsp yoghurt

Kohlrabi3

Sweet potatoe and lentil salad

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Have a tasty lentil salad for lunch! This salad is full of healthy and teasty ingredients. It is well balanced in so many ways. The crunch of the oninons against the soft cheese and potatoes, the fresh mint contrasts beautifully with the sweet flavors.

This salad would make a great lunch, a starter or a side dish with a barbeque.

Sweet potato and lentil salad ( 1 person lunch, or a great side dish)

  • 2 sweet potatoes
  • 150 gr (puy) lentils, tinned or freshly cooked
  • 100 gr goat cheese
  • 1 red onion, finely sliced
  • 1 handfull of fresh mint, finely sliced
  • Optional:
    • 1/2 red paprika, in small squares
    • 1 pepper, finely sliced
  • Honey mustard dressing:
    • 1 tbsp honey
    • 2 tbsp mustard
    • 3 tbsp olive oil
    • 1 tsp dill (optional)

Lentil4LunchS

  1. Preheat your oven to 220 degrees C.
  2. Peel your potatoes and slice them into rustic chips. Coat them in oil, season them and bake them in the oven for 25 minutes or until they are tender.
  3. Combine with the other salad ingredients for a great lunch dish!

Lemon & Nigella seed salad

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If you have never tasted these lovely seeds, go out and find them. Don’t be fooled and buy black sesame seeds, get the real stuff. Ironically, I learned about this lovely seed through THE Nigella, but there is no real connection there, just that I really like both of them.

They are very aromatic and they make any simple salad or dip sing with flavor.

Lemon & Nigella seed salad 

  • 1 quarter iceberg lettuce, in fine slivers
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 1 red onion, in thin slivers
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • 3 tbsp olive oil
  • Pepper & Salt to taste
  • 1 tbsp of nigella seeds

GreekStew1

This salad combines very well with a Greek stew.

Add some chicken to make this a lunch salad.

 

Tasty chicory boats

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I like making this salad as a starter for a dinner party. It is full of strong flavors, but very well balanced. There is also a great variation in textures. I can guarantee you that this will definately intrigue your dinner guests.

This dish also makes a great lunch salad. When combined with a piece of leftover chicken it is very filling.

Chicory taste explosion

  • 3 chicory
  • 1 apple, finely sliced (no need to remove the skin, this adds color)
  • 1 handful of walnuts, roughly chopped
  • 75 gr blue cheese
  • Juice of half a lemon
  • Olive oil, generous sprinkling
  1. Remove the 4 outer leaves of each chicory. Keep them whole for serving the salad.
  2. Remove the cores and slice the rest of the chicory in 5 mm strips.
  3. Mix your chicory strips with the other salad ingredients. Dress the ingredients well as both the apple and the chicory will discolor without the dressing. Season to taste.
  4. Devide your salad over the chicory leaves for perfect tasty boats.

Asian fruit salad with a Europian twist

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This is a tasty Asian fruit salad is known as rojak in Malaysia. It makes a great side dish with a (Malaysian) curry but it also makes a great accompaniment with grilled meat, fish or poultry.

Traditionally Roedjak is made with tropical fruit but I have found it is also delicious with tart apples and crunchy cucumber. The dressing sort of preserves your salad, making it possible to make your salad one or two days in advance.

Rojak

Asian fruit salad with Dutch fruit

  • 1 cucumber in cubes
  • 2 apples in cubes
  • 1 union thinly sliced
  • Optional: 1 mango, 2 peaches and/or ½ a pineapple in cubes
  • To taste: 1 red chili pepper thinly sliced and/or a handful of coriander
  • Dressing:
    • 2 tbsp ketjap manis/sweet soy sauce
    • 1 tbsp hoisin sauce
    • 2 tbsp sweet chili sauce
    • 2 tbsp mirin or lemon juice
  1. Mix your dressing ingredients.
  2. Slice your ingredients, mix and combine.

Find more salad inspiration here.

Lunch salads

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Recently I descided to challenge myself and eat more healthy for lunch. What this comes down to is lots of salads! I would like to share to tasty simple salad recipes here.

Each recipe makes a tasty one person lunch or a great side dish or starter with dinner.

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Eggy salad (1 serving)

  • 2 soft boiled eggs in wedges
  • 1 spring onion
  • 1 handfull of chopped flat leaf parsley
  • 1 tomato in cubes
  • Simple honey mustard dressing

Simple honey mustard dressing

  • 1 tbsp of dyon mustard
  • 1 tbsp of honey
  • 1 tbsp of mayo (find a recipe for making your own here)

Combine the dressing ingredients in a jam jar and shake.

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Fig and blue cheese salad (1 serving)

  • 2 handfuls of your favorite salad leaves
  • 1 tomato, diced
  • 1 handful of fried bacon cubes
  • 1 handfil of chopped nuts (I used almonds here but walnuts or pecans would be perfect!)
  • 2 fresh figs in wedges
  • 1 hanful of crumbly blue cheese
  • Drizzle with olive oil and a good balsamic vinegar
  • Sprinkle with sea salt and freshly crushed black pepper

Read more about salads here.

 

Simpel starters: salmon salad

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Salmonsalad2This salad is a great way to make the most of slices of smoked salmon. This salad is inspired on carpaccio. It is an easy way to impress your guests without too much fuss. If you buy good quality salmon, you just need to bring the ingredients together to create a beautiful harmony of flavors and textures.

I like making 4 individual servings, but if you want you can make a large serving platter.

Salmon salad (4 servings)

  • 200 grams smoked salmon
  • 2 handfuls of your favorite lettuce leaves
  • 1 (spring) onion finely sliced
  • 1 handful of pine nuts
  • olive oil
  • 1 lemon. Use half for dressing the salad and cut the rest in wedges for presentation.
  • parmesian
  • Optional: sliced tomato and cucumber

Salmonsalad3

After slicing your ingredients, assemble your salad. Dress your leaves with olive oil and lemon juice and divide them over the plates. Spread your ingredients over the leaves. Finish with an extra drizzle of olive oil, freshly ground black pepper and a sprinkling of sea salt.

This salad also works great with slices of fresh tuna.

4 principles for a tasty salad

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A good salad is about balance and contrast. If you keep the following 4  principles in mind, you can make special salads every day of the year.

  1. Don’t combine too many ingredients, the best salads have around 5 main ingredients. This ensures you taste every ingredients shines.
  2. Make a simple dressing that compliments your ingredients. If you insist on using a complex dressing like a ceasar dressing, keep your salad even more simple: using up to 3 ingredients. For more information on ceasar salad read about my dutch ceasar salad here.
  3. Balance your flavors. Make sure you have a sharp/spicy, sweet, salty, sour, savory and bitter component in your ingredients and dressing.
    Sparpness can come from unions, chili or pepper.
    Sweet can come form honey in your dressing or some fruit or sultanas.
    Salty can come from some cheese, bacon,salty nuts or even sea salt.
    Sour can come from sertain lettuce leaves or butter milk in your dressing.
    Savory kan come from nuts, croutons or bacon.
    Bitter notes can come from your choice of leaves, cheese or fruits like grapefruit.
  4. Balance your textures. Make sure you have a variety of textures. Croutons or nuts for some bite, soft cheese or pears, creamy dressing and crunchy lettuce or cucumber.

FestiveLettuce1

The other day I made a tasty well balanced salad using endive leaves, feta cheese , union, tomatoe and bacon with a simple honey mustard dressing. For the honey mustard dressing combine equal quantities of mustard and honey. For a more runny dressing add water of (butter) milk to this mixture.

Rockin Rocket Pesto

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rrpIf you ever tried growing rocket (or arugula) you know it grows like a weed. You can eat these lovely leaves every day once your rocket plants get going.

In Holland you find them in the wild too. They grow on sandy soil, so you find them in the dunes, next to rail roads and just on side walks.

If you are lucky enough to have an abundance of rocket, you might be looking for a new way to use it up. I like to do this by making my own pesto.

This recipe has no exact quantities, I suggest going with your instincts, and go by what you have in your fridge and adding ingredients to your taste.

Rocket_Pesto

Rockin Rocket Pesto

  • 1 – 2 handfulls of rocket
  • 1 handful of cashews (or hazelnuts, walnuts, peanuts, whatever nut you like)
  • a piece of hard cheese
  • 1 clove of garlic
  • 1 – 2 tbsp of lemon juice
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • Salt and pepper to taste

I grind and mix my ingredients in my trusty little blender. Make sure you have enough oil in the blender.

Store your pesto in a jar or container in the fridge. Keep a layer of oil on top of your pesto to keep it fresh. Eat it within a week, but for us this is not a challenge!

This pesto is lovely as a dip with some home made bread, on your (meat) sandwich or through your pasta. If you add some more oil and lemon juice, it makes a lovely dressing for your tomatoes and mozzarella salad.

RocketPesto_Salad

 

This recipe works with basil or fenil tops too.