Tag Archives: Salads

Zalatat shuwander (beet salad)

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This lovely salad is another recipe from my latest toy, the marvellous Iraqi cookbook-and-more, Delights from the Garden of Eden, by Nawal Nasrallah.

But really, it could just as easily come from any of my Italian cookbooks.

The simplicity of the seasonings lets the earthy flavour of the beets be the hero.

Nawal lists yogurt or sour cream as a garnish, but I reckon if you want to use either of them it’d be better done at table – that way leftovers will retain their dark colouring and not become a compromised pink!

INGREDIENTS

3 mediums beets

extra virgin olive oil

juice of one lemon

salt

pepper

parsley

METHOD

1. Pre-heat over to 225C.

2. Wash beets but don’t trim.

3. Wrap beets well in foil and put in oven for an hour.

4. Let cool.

5. Peel beets by hand or using a peeler or knife. If you’re a little fussy about getting your hands dyed, use rubber gloves.

6. Dice beets into small cubes.

7. Toss with remaining ingredients.

8. Refrigerate for at least half an hour before eating.

Zaalouk (mashed eggplant and tomato salad)

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This zingy salad from Morocco is, of course, a close relative of baba ghanouj.

Instead of tahini and/or yogurt, the recipe uses roughly cooked-to-a-pulp tomatoes.

This is a slightly tweaked version of the dish found in Claudia Roden’s Arabesque – I throttled back some on the cumin and garlic, didn’t feel like leaving the house just to get a bunch of coriander, and didn’t think a garnish of black olives sounded that hot.

And I never peel tomatoes.

INGREDIENTS

2 medium eggplants

juice 1/2 fleshy lemon

2 medium large tomatoes

2 large cloves garlic, finely chopped.

extra virgin olive oil

1/2 teaspoon paprika

chilli powder to taste

1/2 teaspoon ground cumin

1/4 cup approximately chopped flat-leaf parsley

METHOD

1. Prick eggplants several times to stop ’em exploding and place in a very hot (225C) pre-heated over for about 45 minutes until wrinkly all over.

3. When they’re done, let cool.

4. When cool enough to handle comfortably, scoop pulp into a bowl and discard skins.

5. Roughly chop the tomatoes and cook in olive oil with some salt until pulpy and not quite a sauce.

6. While the tomatoes are cooking, smash up the eggplant into a rough mash. Don’t get too carried away – a rough texture is what is desired for the finished salad.

7. Into the eggplant pulp put the cumin, paprika, chilli powder, garlic and parsley.

8. Into this mix add the tomatoes and some more lemon juice and a dash more olive oil.

9. Set salad aside for at least an hour or so before  eating.

Keeps well!

Good in sandwiches!

Marinated cauliflower salad

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So I’ve bought a cauliflower from Sunshine Fresh Food Market – solely on the basis that they look so very fine, especially for “outside” produce, and the price ($1.45) is so right.

Now what?

I think about roasting chopped up cauliflower with oliveoilsaltpepper.

But then I remember there’s a sensational marinated salad recipe in one of my cajun cookbooks.

This salad is a sensation.

So zingy and colourful!

It keeps for ages and will even work super, I reckon, in a sandwich with, say, some pastrami or mortadella.

I plane to find out with this new batch.

I have tweaked the recipe to the extent of halving the high-powered quantities of onion, garlic, black pepper and vinegar.

INGREDIENTS

1 cauliflower

1 red capsicum

1 yellow capsicum

2 celery sticks

1/2 red onion

2 large cloves garlic

1/2 cup virgin olive oil

1/2 cup red wine vinegar

1/2 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper

salt to taste

METHOD

1. Bring large pot of water to the boil.

2. While waiting for water to boil, chop cauliflower – including the stalks – into bite-size pieces.

3. Put all the cauliflower in the boiling water and cook for about five minutes – until al dente is best.

4. While cauliflower cooks, chop all the other vegetables and put into bowl; garlic finely, the rest chunky.

5. When cauliflower is done, drain and then rinse in cold water. Let sit for a while so it cools down.

6. Put cauliflower in bowl with the other vegetables.

7. Add salt and pepper; mix.

8. Add olive oil; mix

9. Add red wine vinegar; mix.

10. Cover tightly with cling wrap and refrigerate for at least 24 hours.

The day after I knocked this batch together, I had some with my purchases from Oasis Bakery earlier in the day:

Another perfect meal …

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Roast vegetables with rosemary and garlic: Hot out of the oven, warm/cold as a salad, or the next day (or two) for lunch on toast – makes no difference; all great!

Ingredients:

Spud, sweet spud, eggplant, largish onion, red capsicum, carrot, parsnip, zucchini, one long twig fresh rosemary, four garlic cloves, salt, pepper, olive oil, red wine vinegar.

Method:

1. Pre-heat oven to high heat – 200C in convection oven for me.

2. Chop all vegetables into smallish bite-size pieces, put in large bowl.

I usually throw ’em all in at once, even if the eggplant and zucchini break down more than their compatriots. This time I held them back for about 15 minutes before letting them join their pals in the oven.

Chop onion into quarters – it all falls apart in cooking.

Slice red capsicum after de-seeding and removing the membrane bits.

3. Lightly crush garlic cloves, but don’t peel. Add to vegetables.

These can be eaten with the rest but it’s optional. I don’t mind roast garlic, but I’m no big fan either – so I mostly use these for seasoning/perfuming.

4. Throw in rosemary.

Some variants I’ve seen of this recipe say to strip the rosemary to individual leaves, but I find that too messy and actually rather unpleasant, as the rosemary covers each and every vegetable chunk. Sprigs about 5cm long is the go. It falls apart plenty under cooking anyway.

3. Liberally douse with salt to taste and freshly ground pepper.

4. Use a heavy hand with the olive oil.

5. THIS IS THE BEST BIT – well, apart from eating your work anyway! Mix vegies, olive oil and seasonings thoroughly BY HAND!

6. Place all on as many foil-lined trays as you need, distributing rosemary and garlic evenly and leaving as much space between the vegetable chunks as you can.

7. Place in oven. After 15 minutes, put zucchini and eggplant bits in with the rest.

8. Gleelfully inhale cooking aromas.

9. Cook for a total of about an hour or until well done.

Some of the thinner parts of the onion an capsicum should be fairly well charred.

10. Place back in same bowl from whence they came.

11. Splash with red wine vinegar. I like quite a lot, actually, and more is good if you’re planning to keep the leftovers in the fridge.

12. Serve.

13. Sprinkle with fetta cheese (optional). Ricotta or cottage cheese may work, too

14. Eat.

15. Stash leftovers in a plastic container in the fridge.

Can taste even better the next day!

Another sooper-dooper thing about this recipe is that it makes your house smell freaking amazing – even better than chicken stock and much, much better than incense of even the highest quality.

Any bloggers and/or cooks out there have any tips on how to pour olive oil AND take a photograph at the same time?