What glorious, glorious weather we have been having!!!
I am already in love with the feeling of Summer on the way, and we aren’t even in Spring yet! My shoulders are already sun kissed, the children have been swimming and we are about to have our first BBQ of the season.
In honour of the new season I am sharing a brand new, fresh salad recipe. It’s an original recipe, but not exactly mine.
…I am not quite sure what we should call this dish so I am going to share a story, and then we might try to “name the salad”.
I have a gorgeous but non domesticated friend. She has recently returned from serving in Afghanistan.
Ask to bring a salad to share she bravely went to the supermarket to choose the produce. Her exact words to me were “I chose everything I liked that was green”.
She was very proud of herself, and as it turns out she had good reason to be… she is a culinary genius in camo! Perhaps she was just not showing her hand previously…
Unbeknown to me there was a conversation about one of the ingredients. Mr GG “What is the lime for Maurz?”
… “I don’t know, I thought maybe it could be the dressing???”
There was backward and forward discussion about what the dressing should be and then Maurzy resolved to leave it, and see what Miss J says.
Oblivious to the conversation I appeared and saw the most gorgeous and original salad. My first words were, “Yum, what are you going to dress it with?” Before Maurz could answer I spotted the lime and said “OMG! A lime dressing with the feta would be amazing!” Mr GG and Maurz laughed… I think there may have even been high fives going on behind my back… apparently I am very predictable and had solved the early quandary.
The only real change I have made to the salad is that I have included a Lime Aioli as the dressing and added grated ginger for a little more zing. This salad also has chicken thigh tenderloins because it was to be a main meal but you could leave these out if it was to be served as a side salad.
Notice my home grown sprouts! I will tell you more about these in another story.
Ingredients:
10 Chicken tenderloin fillets
2 heads of broccoli (chopped into small florets)
1 Cucumber sliced
2 Green apples diced
75gm toasted almond flakes
2cm fresh ginger grated
1 pkt Alfalfa sprouts
200gm creamy feta
Aioli:
100ml Macadamia Oil
1 Egg yolk
1/2 bulb garlic
Juice from two limes
Lime zest to garnish
Method:
Fry the chicken in a little oil and reserve for later.
Roast almonds briefly under a grill.
On a serving tray arrange, broccoli, cucumber and apple as desired.
Grate the ginger over the vegetables.
Place sprouts around the outside of the salad.
Crumble feta over the salad and add the almonds.
Arrange the chicken fillets on the salad ready for serving.
Aioli Method:
With a stick blender pulverise the garlic in a little bit of the oil. Once smooth add the egg yolk and a little more of the oil. Once combined and thickened add the remaining oil in a steady stream while blending. Slowly add the lime juice.
So I wonder what we should call this salad??
…any thought?