I remember when a salad used to be quite mundane, maybe some iceberg lettuce, tomato, cucumber & carrot with a bit of dressing, which is till an ok side salad for a quick meat & salad meal. Salads can be just so exciting, start with the freshest ingredients & think colours, textures; with toasted nuts or seeds, flavour combos, roasted veg, fresh herbs, in season veggies or salad greens & delicious dressings, even adding in amazing protein can lift a salad. Even consider using leftovers from a meal cold grilled or steamed meats or meatballs. You don’t really need a recipe for a great salad but sometimes it’s so good you want to be able to recreate that amazing combo. Here are a few of my favourites in no particular order that I will be continuing to update.
Roast lamb salad (marinade made in the Thermomix) with some roasted veg feta & other salad ingredients.
I used Eloise Emmett’s recipe to pickle my octopus & then serve with either a greek style or green salad – also yummy with a creamy potato salad too.
Guess what? Some salads are better made without the Thermomix you might only make the dressing in the Thermomix – this is a favourite of mine Fennel Salad I love to serve it with confit or steamed salmon. (The recipe is from a great book that includes French style recipes – Lunch in Paris by Elizabeth Bard.)
I’m not normally a fan of coleslaw but even using red cabbage & the fresh apple or pear, red capsicum & some fresh dill & try adding some pecans for extra crunch I prefer my coleslaw dressed with lemon juice & olive oil. Of course it is so easy to make your own mayo in the Thermomix too.- Dani Valent had a peanut butter coleslaw recipe in the In the Mix 2 cookbook.
My take on Mum’s Chicken & Mango Salad – Such a versatile salad great to use up left over steamed chicken breast (after steaming a whole chook) or poaching chicken breasts in the Thermomix. You can use any nuts you like either cashews, macadamia or pistachios. Finely chopped celery for the crunch & fresh element, 1 mango sliced, sliced spring onions. Avocado is delicious in it too. I used cucumber because I had some in the fridge & added fresh parsley & mint leaves. Mum dressed it with 1/2 homemade mayo & half natural yoghurt 1 tsp of curry powder & 1 tabs of tomato relish. I used a honey & seeded mustard vinaigrette to dress it, my sister likes to use an Asian style dressing with soy sauce, fresh ginger & garlic.
I love to make Teressa Cutter’s Massaged Kale Salad in the Thermomix – I stir it on reversed instead of massaging it by hand & then I love to add some Thermomix shredded chicken YUM!!
Warm Sweet Potato Salad or use pink eye potatoes instead either with homemade mayo or serve warm with Thermie made Bearnaise sauce with or without crispy bacon!! Of course you can put it in the fridge & serve it cold too 🙂 (Yes you may have noticed there is a sneaky Brussel Sprout in this one so feel free to add any of you other favourite veggies that are in season I steamed the brussel sprout with the sweet potato.)
I love greek salad but serving it with steamed lamb meatballs really makes it into a special delicious meal that is so easy to prepare 🙂
Nico Moretti’s roasted Cauliflower Salad. You will find the recipe in his Delicious Journeys Cookbook – actually it’s on the front cover too!
The classic beetroot salad from your basic cookbook you can jazz up if you want, serve with feta, pistachios, pomegranate seeds, chickpeas or even tuna. Use any fresh herbs you like.
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