Salads

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Stefanmuller

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My wife is on a diet so me being the cook, its mostly salads that I have to make. Not complaining too much as I love making salads, but I van only have so much salad in a week before it becomes boring and feeling like you didn't really eat. It can also become quite expensive (in salad terms). Here is a great recipe I got from RSG an tweaked a bit:

Roasted grape, rocket and haloumi cheese salad

Original recipe goes seedless red grapes, cooked at 200C in pomegranate molasses for 20-30 minutes. Use about 3 tablespoons of the molasses. Cut Haloumi into 1cm strips and fry till golden brown. Can do it without oil in non stick pan. Fry some hazelnut in pad till aromatic. Place on a bed of rocket leaves and drizzle with the remaining jus from the grapes.

I tried this one and modified it a bit. I could not find pomegranate molasses so got pomegranate concentrate (next to the salad dressings and balsamic reductions at Woollies) and took about 3 tablespoons full of that, mixed in a bit of that thickish balsamic reduction stuff, and drizzled over the grapes and put into oven.

Thought the salad needed some meat so bought pancetta and fried it. Got the Haloumi. When I heard the recipe I immediately thought avo, so got that.

Get bowl, cover with nice layer of wild rocket, cur some red onion half rings, add cooked grapes, add pancetta, add fried haloumi, add avo slices. Did not have hazelnut so added some of those mixed seed stuff that you usually use to dip bread into olive oil and balsamic. Add bit of sea salt. Heavenly result!

My wife added smoked chicken to hers on top of it all and is convinced hers were better.

First time I have cooked grapes for salad.

Any other interesting salad ideas?
 
My ideal salad has to have one of each, with at least:

1 x type of leaf
1 x type of veg
1 x type of cheese
1 x type of nut
1 x type of sprout

Dressing is optional but most often welcome.
 
One of the best items I've had in a salad was deep fried danish feta.. no idea how to make it but it is simply amazing..
 
Broccoli salad

Throw in cut up broccoli heads, grated cheddar cheese, raisins, sunflower seeds and almonds. Add a little bit or a lot of mayo.

I play around with the quantities and have substituted the almonds for other or mixed nuts. Used sesame seeds too. omnomnom
 
Last edited:
cous cous salad

I like this one since its a nice cold salad for warm summer days

Little bit of couscous (soaked in hot water and then let to stand to cool down a bit). Add in pepper, feta cheese, cucumber, tomato, coriander/cilantro (fresh variety works best). Then a bit of garlic and lemon juice for taste, though I have omitted this before.
 
I once had a strawberry and avo salad. Think it had some balsamic vinegar as dressing. At first I thought WTF but after I had some - SO AWESOME!
 
Nefertiti said:
Broccoli salad

Throw in cut up broccoli heads, grated cheddar cheese, raisins, sunflower seeds and almonds. Add a little bit or a lot of mayo.

I play around with the quantities and have substituted the almonds for other or mixed nuts. Used sesame seeds too. omnomnom
Click to expand...

Great one this. The recipe I use is raw broccoli, and then sultanas for the raisins Awesome as a side for something like a christmas lunch but not as a main meal because of all the mayo. Add some fried bacon bits and you can also swop canned peas if you like.
 
Hamster said:
I once had a strawberry and avo salad. Think it had some balsamic vinegar as dressing. At first I thought WTF but after I had some - SO AWESOME!
Click to expand...

A nice quick summer salad is the following:

Rocket leaves
Red onion
Watermelon diced in nice big blocks
Crumbled feta
Balsamic reduction drizzle
Optional add some seeds
 
Nefertiti said:
cous cous salad

I like this one since its a nice cold salad for warm summer days

Little bit of couscous (soaked in hot water and then let to stand to cool down a bit). Add in pepper, feta cheese, cucumber, tomato, coriander/cilantro (fresh variety works best). Then a bit of garlic and lemon juice for taste, though I have omitted this before.
Click to expand...

For some reason I suck in cooking couscous. I always make it too soggy. But well cooked couscous is awesome for salads.
 
Another favourite:

Finely diced head of lettuce (or butter lettuce)
Finely chopped onion
Avo chopped in blocks
Crumbled feta
Drizzle with lemon juice
Black pepper

Goes nicely with a sunday braai
 
Salad:
Butter or mixed salad.
Tomato sliced or halved cherry tomatoes.
Red onion finely sliced.
Cucumber cut into small blocks.
Radish thinly sliced.
Finely chopped celery.
Green, red or yellow bell pepper, chopped
Cubed feta cheese.

Dressing:
Olive or Canola oil
Red wine vinegar.
Salt.
Dash or 2 of Tabasco.
Teaspoon tip of crushed garlic.

Mix all the ingredients for dressing together, shake vigorously and pour over salad.
Best served at room temperature, or slightly cooler.
 
Crispy bacon/pancetta
Grilled peaches
Blue cheese
Smokey butter fried pecans (add some smoked seasoning when frying pecans)
Baby butter lettuce
Cucumber ribbons
 
I really like a decent broccoli cauliflower salad ... Basic ingredients would be broccoli & cauliflower florets marinated in a vinaigrette (store bought works fine) to which you add onion, cheese, bacon or basically whatever you like. Marinate in refrigerator for a couple of hours, preferably overnight.

Lekker man!
 
Stefanmuller said:
Great one this. The recipe I use is raw broccoli, and then sultanas for the raisins Awesome as a side for something like a christmas lunch but not as a main meal because of all the mayo. Add some fried bacon bits and you can also swop canned peas if you like.
Click to expand...

Yea, I try limit the mayo as much as possible since I am not really a mayo fan. I should have mentioned raw broccoli :p. I will definitely try it with the bacon bits :D
 
Stefanmuller said:
For some reason I suck in cooking couscous. I always make it too soggy. But well cooked couscous is awesome for salads.
Click to expand...

I usually add enough water to cover my cous cous, so water and cous cous is the same level. That seems to work for me. If I want it more swollen I'll add a little bit of water on top of it, but really very little.
 
Stefanmuller said:
Here is a great recipe I got from RSG an tweaked a bit:

Roasted grape, rocket and haloumi cheese salad

Original recipe goes seedless red grapes, cooked at 200C in pomegranate molasses for 20-30 minutes. Use about 3 tablespoons of the molasses. Cut Haloumi into 1cm strips and fry till golden brown. Can do it without oil in non stick pan. Fry some hazelnut in pad till aromatic. Place on a bed of rocket leaves and drizzle with the remaining jus from the grapes.

I tried this one and modified it a bit. I could not find pomegranate molasses so got pomegranate concentrate (next to the salad dressings and balsamic reductions at Woollies) and took about 3 tablespoons full of that, mixed in a bit of that thickish balsamic reduction stuff, and drizzled over the grapes and put into oven.

Thought the salad needed some meat so bought pancetta and fried it. Got the Haloumi. When I heard the recipe I immediately thought avo, so got that.

Get bowl, cover with nice layer of wild rocket, cur some red onion half rings, add cooked grapes, add pancetta, add fried haloumi, add avo slices. Did not have hazelnut so added some of those mixed seed stuff that you usually use to dip bread into olive oil and balsamic. Add bit of sea salt. Heavenly result!
Click to expand...

I heard this on RSG as I was flipping through channels on my way back from work. Heard the lady said that the grapes takes on a raisin like texture, not a fan of cooked raisins so I think I'll give it a skip.
 
Stefanmuller said:
For some reason I suck in cooking couscous. I always make it too soggy. But well cooked couscous is awesome for salads.
Click to expand...

Couscous is very easy. 1 cup of couscous to 2 cups of boiled water, or stock. Pour in and let it sit for 10 minutes, then fluff and add the rest of your ingredients.

The other day I did a grilled watermelon salad that I posted on the forum:
Cut 3 rounds from a watermelon. Place rounds on grill plate and grill each side for 5 minutes. Dice into 1-inch pieces.
Drizzle with balsamic reduction
Sprinkle a brick of feta on top.
Add mint (although in hindsight I'm not sure I like mint...maybe coriander leaves would have added some pepper to it), salt and pepper.
 
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