Middle Eastern Salad

Me and Lester are trying to cut back on carbs at dinner time (baking is *kinda* excluded from this rule), so you will probably see quite a few salad recipes on this blog. This is a fave of ours, mainly thanks to the Dukkah encrusted chicken and the sweet salty Haloumi. This also makes good use of Pomegranate Molasses and Tahini, two essential Middle Eastern ingredients that I'm always looking for new recipes for.

This may look quite complicated, but it's all pretty simple really - you can take out some ingredients and steps if you need this in a hurry. I never cut corners if it's going to make it taste better, but that's me...and this salad tastes amazing.

Middle Eastern Salad

For the Salad (Serves 2)

2 boneless, skinless chicken thighs, cut into bit sized pieces (lamb would be great here)

Dukkah (I use Alexandra's Bazaar brand, they have a few different varieties)

Lettuce/mesculun

Watercress

Fresh mint

Half a block of Haloumi, cut into slices

1 piece Rye Mountain bread, torn into strips

Salt

Pepper

EVOO (I used Al Brown's Lemon & Fennel infused oil)

1/4 Telegraph Cucumber, peeled and cut into small chunks

1 Capsicum, cut into strips

Cranberries

Microgreens (optional - radish, sorrel, pea shoots)

Baby or normal carrots (2 normal or 4 baby)

Ground Cumin

Honey

Dressing

2 teaspoons Tahini (Sesame seed paste)

3 Tablespoons Greek Yoghurt

1 clove garlic, crushed or microplaned

1 tablespoon Pomegranate Molasses

Juice of 1/2 a lemon

Rind of 1/2 a lemon

Salt and Pepper

1 Tablespoon EVOO

1 Tablespoon water

Preheat your oven to fan bake, 180 degrees.

Drizzle the chicken with olive oil, season with salt and pepper and add about 3 tablespoons of Dukkah and mix well to coat the chicken. Place chicken pieces on a baking paper lined tray and fan-bake until cooked and golden.

Cut the baby carrots into quarters lengthwise, drizzle with EVOO, a little bit of honey, a dusting of ground Cumin, Salt and Pepper, and add to chicken tray about half way through.

Drizzle Mountain Bread strips with EVOO, season, and add to chicken tray when chicken and carrots are almost cooked.

For the dressing, mix together all ingredients in a small bowl until smooth. Season to taste.

When your chicken is cooked and starting to colour, your carrots are tender-crisp and the mountain bread golden, remove from oven and let cool a little.

Fry the haloumi in a medium pan with EVOO until golden on both sides.

Assemble your salad with the lettuce, mint, capsicum, cucumber, and cranberries, adding the hot ingredients last and drizzling the dressing generously over. Top with microgreens, then lasty the hot Haloumi straight from the pan (give it a quick squeeze with a lemon first, it really makes the Haloumi sing)

Chicken, Mountain Bread and Yellow Carrots roasting up nicely

mmmm....can't beat Haloumi

Strawberry Chicken Salad

This is one of those 'just trust me' recipes - savory and sweet can co-exist on your dinner plate. I know - it may sound a bit freaky, but this salad really works. This was our post-gym (Gem) and post wind-trainer (Lester) dinner whipped up in a hurry, and we just happened to have everything on hand.

One thing I really enjoy about cooking, and reading about cooking, is looking at flavour combinations. This is why this salad is a winner - balsamic dressing - strawberries - almonds - chicken - crisp lettuce - avocado - creamy goats chèvre - asparagus - see? They all work so well together. I also added some mountain bread crisps for a bit of added crunch.

Lester even loved it, and usually he would throw me confused looks at the thought of fruit in a salad :)

Strawberry Chicken Salad

Serves two

2 boneless skinless Chicken thighs, cut into bite sized chances
Good quality extra virgin olive oil
Balsamic vinegar & or/ Balsamic reduction
Salt & pepper

1 piece Rye (or other variety) Mountain Bread -  a low carb, really thin wrap style bread.
Sliced Almonds
Avocado, cut into chunks
Lettuce
Cucumber, cut into chunks
about 3 large Strawberries, sliced
Asparagus, (about 3 spears per person), cut into thirds
Goat's cheese (chèvre) - about a third of a roll, crumbled.

Directions:

Preheat the grill to about 180 degrees (fan grill if you have it)

Drizzle a good slosh of Olive oil and Balsamic Vinegar (I used reduction) over the chicken and season well.

Tear the mountain bread into strips, drizzle sparingly with olive oil and season. Rub with your fingers to speed the oil over the bread.

Put your almonds and bread strips onto an oven tray, and put under the grill under crisp and golden brown (about 5 minutes). Transfer into a bowl to cool.

Now put the chicken pieces onto the tray, and grill for about 10 minutes until almost cooked and starting to brown.

Drizzle the asparagus with olive oil, season, and add onto the tray with the chicken for  a further 5 minutes, until the chicken is cooked and the asparagus is nicely roasted.

Make your salad dressing - about 1.5 tablespoons of Balsamic vinegar, 4 tablespoons Olive Oil, Salt, Pepper and minced garlic (1 small clove, ideally rubbed through a microplane). Shake together in a small jar.

Dress your salad leaves with about two-thirds of the salad leaves, then place the leaves on a plate and top with the rest of the ingredients - the asparagus, strawberries, cucumber, mountain bread crisps, toasted almonds, avocado, chicken and crumbled goats cheese.

Drizzle with remaining dressing, and serve.