Mediterranean dreaming
Three summer salads inspired by the last few weeks of summer in my humble veggie patch
Something’s changed massively for me when it comes to cooking dinner. I used to start by focusing on the main part of the meal. The meat component as it were. And then I’d throw something together to go with it, be that some steamed veggies or a simple salad.
Over time, I’ve flipped that notion on its head. I now find so much more enjoyment out of starting with the veggie side bits first and I make the meal work around them. They’re the star of the show and then I think about what protein will go with whatever I’ve created.
Take last night’s Mediterranean themed salads as an example. I starting by seeing what was in the fridge and veggie patch and this is what we came up with.
A pan fried butter bean and zucchini salad, a simple cucumber number and a deliciously satisfying plate of warm blistered tomatoes with basil.
All of these salads would pair beautifully with some lovely grilled lamb chops or steak, some firm white fish fillets, a barbecue chook, tin of good quality tuna or some store-bought falafel.
I find this way of eating so much more exciting, what with all of the variety. It makes me feel like I’m sitting under a grapevine somewhere, wine in hand, not a care in the world. On holiday in the Greek Islands perhaps?
A girl’s gotta dream.
Enjoy.
Warm blistered tomato salad
Serves 2
1 x punnet of cherry tomatoes
A splash of balsamic vinegar
Some thinly sliced Spanish onion
1/2 of a large red cayenne fresh chilli
A generous handful of fresh basil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
A dash of olive oil
Add a dash of olive oil to a non stick fry pan and throw in the tomatoes, seasoning with salt and pepper. Let them cook until they start to blister, whilst tossing them around the pan.
Add a dash of balsamic vinegar, the Spanish onion, chilli and fresh basil and cook them for a few minutes before tipping out on to a serving plate.
Lo’s Tips: You don’t want to over cook the tomatoes here. I like them blistered, but not entirely mushy if that makes sense. I like the onion and basil to be quite undercooked as well here. This is a very fast dish and if your ingredients are nice and fresh, it is something really quite spectacular.
Butter beans with zucchini
Serves 2
1-2 zucchinis, finely sliced
1 x 400 gram tin of butter beans, strained
A scattering of baby capers
A handful of fresh parsley
1/2 of a large red cayenne fresh chilli
A sprinkling of chilli flakes
6 or so strips of lemon rind (I use a potato peeler to do this)
The juice of half, to a full lemon
A dash of olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
Go in with a dash of olive oil to a large non stick fry pan and fry the zucchini, seasoning with salt and pepper here.
Add the butter beans, seasoning them with a little salt and pepper and continue to cook until everything has started to get lovely and gnarly.
Simply add the capers, parsley, chilli, chilli flakes, lemon rind, lemon juice and a splash of water and let it go for a bit until all nicely come together.
Serve with a drizzle of good olive oil to finish.
A simple cucumber salad
Serves 2
1 x large Lebanese cucumber, finely sliced
A good dollop of natural yoghurt
The juice of half, to a full lemon
A sprinkling of dried tarragon
A drizzle of honey
Fresh dill or mint, finely sliced
A scant dash of olive oil
Salt and freshly cracked pepper
There isn’t anything simpler than what we’re about to do here. Throw everything into a small mixing bowl. Toss. Taste. Enjoy.
I think you can tell how much we enjoyed our meal last night.
So that brings us to the end of yet another ‘Lo’s Kitchen Today’ post. Here are a couple of points to take away from all of this.
Beans are your friend. If you don’t have tinned butter beans in your pantry - go and buy some now.
Oh for the love of good olive oil. Treat yourself the next time you’re at your local coffee shop. Does it have a wall of artisan goods on offer? Reach for that nice bottle of olive oil, go and pick up the best looking tomatoes you can find and see what I’m talking about when I tell you that this delightful little plate of blistered tomatoes will change your life.
Be creative. Literally any vegetable can be made better by adding it to a hot pan with some olive oil and salt and pepper. Zucchinis are in season at the moment. Why not slice them really quite thinly, pan fry them and serve them as a little entree with a piece of nice prosciutto and fresh basil arranged over the top. Or slice up some beautifully ripe large tomatoes and serve them with some good burrata cheese, a flourish of caramelised balsamic vinegar and some slices of ripe peach.
Have fun. Cooking should be fun. Eating should be fun. We’re so lucky to have all of this fresh produce at our finger tips. A lot of you reading this would be a helluva lot more experienced when it comes to vegetable gardening than me. But if you’re a real novice - why not buy a pot of parsley or basil, put it in a sunny spot on the windowsill in your kitchen and see how you go. Or if you’ve got a bit of dirt outside somewhere, plant a packet of radish seeds. Radishes were the first thing I was told to try my hand at growing, by my good friend and gardener extraordinaire, Gunbar Girl, and I cannot tell you the joy these little red beauties give me each time they pop up out of the ground to say hello. You’ll be feeling like Martha Stewart and Don Burke all rolled into one.
Oakie doke. I’m off to go and get moving. We’re heading away for the weekend and these bags aren’t going to pack themselves.
Ciao.
Lo x
I like the way you turn meal planning upside down. I've always thought the old fashioned way with the protein first, but I'm planning my next meal starting with tomatoes x