Recently produced by munch

Roasted butternut, caramelized balsamic onion and brie quiche

Roasted butternut, grilled chicken, wholewheat couscous,
date, almond and baby spinach salad in a citrus dressing

Tossed garden salad with a wholegrain mustard vinaigrette

Mixed platter of small lime cheesecakes with coconut crust, diced mango and  shredded  mint,
and blueberry frangipane tartlets

Blue cheese and walnut shortbread rounds topped with
caramelized pear and crisped Black Forest ham

Leek and potato rosti topped with seared rare sirloin
and roasted baby tomatoes

Mini beef burgers with balsamic onion confit, mature cheddar
and rocket

Roasted bacon-wrapped asparagus

Summer salads

Cape weather is notoriously fickle, so I'm hesitant to say this, but it does seem like summer is arriving - for now, at least. When it's hot, I really don't want to keep the oven and stove on any longer than absolutely necessary, which means Andrew and I tend to eat salads for the duration of summer. Here is last night's inaugural summer salad:

It might look all innocent (and very green) in that picture, but there is a lot going on in that salad. If I'm going to eat salad for dinner, it has to be both interesting and substantial. Luckily, as I've mentioned before in this post, I tend to have lots of bits and pieces of already cooked leftover components in my fridge most of the time, so often I cobble hearty salads together using those bits and pieces.

Even if you don't have that advantage, though, it's easy enough to cook a big batch of one or more grains, chop and saute or roast a few vegetables, maybe cook some bacon or chicken over the weekend, and keep all of this in the fridge to use for salads during the week. Then it's just a matter of throwing these cooked ingredients together with fresh, raw ones in different combinations, and with different dressings.

Of course, this sometimes works out better than other times. Luckily last night's salad was a winner.

Inaugural simmer salad

about 1 cup cooked bulgur wheat
half a small head of broccoli, chopped and sauteed
5 small courgettes, sliced and sauteed
about 1 cup peas, sauteed
1/4 cup roasted cashews
3 rashers streaky bacon, cooked and crumbled
1/2 log garlic and herb chevin
juice of half a lemon
2 tablespoons olive oil
squirt of honey
salt and pepper

Everything tossed together, except the chevin, which I crumbled on top. Dinner in less than five minutes.

Bacon or cheese?

Salad with bacon

And salad with cheese

Which would you choose - bacon or cheese?

Potato salad with green beans, rocket, and bacon or Parmesan
Serves 4

16 baby potatoes, quartered and steamed till firm but cooked through
handful fresh green beans, steamed for just a couple of minute
200g rocket
1/4 cup plain yoghurt
3 tbsp fruity olive oil
juice of 1/2 a lemon
1 tsp honey
salt
pepper
6 strips streaky bacon, crispy and crumbled, OR:
as many shavings of good Parmesan as you like

As you can see, most of this recipe is already written out in the ingredients list. You'll have to quarter and steam the potatoes, stem and steam the green beans, cook and crumble the bacon or shave the Parmesan, using a vegetable peeler.

Then you put the yoghurt, olive oil, lemon juice, honey, salt, and pepper in a large bowl and whisk to combine. Add the potatoes and green beans and toss to coat well.

Now divide the rocket between four plates, in nice little piles on each plate. Top the rocket with the potato mixture. Finally sprinkle the crumbled bacon or Parmesan shavings on top, and you have what I consider to be a very nice lunch.

I'd have the bacon :)