Roasted Carrot Salad with Lime Yoghurt Dressing

Sometimes you don't feel like carbs, sometimes you want something light but satisfying to sate you during the hot months of summer. Roasting carrots brings out their innate sweetness but also their deep earthiness, which acts as a rich and solid tapestry to support other more gutsy flavours.

Roasting the carrots alongside onions adds a sweeter, yet sharper note that is made more complex by the addition of sumac, cumin and thyme, respectively adding a sour tang, a fragrant whiff and savoury herbaceousness.

I've included some marinated tomatoes here, because they compliment the dish so well, but you can leave them out and this would still be sufficiently pleasurable. However, having them at hand can brighten up salads, sandwiches, deli platters and cheese boards, so if you do make them you won't be concerned of how to use them.

A dressing this simple yet this satisfyingly complex allows this dish to come together perfectly. Normally I'd encourage you to experiment with a dish but I consider this to be a rather special one. Tamper if you will, but be aware of the delicate balance that is struck here.

Roasted Carrot Salad with Lime Yoghurt Dressing

450g carrots, peeled and sliced lengthways

2 red onions cut in to eights

1 tsp sumac

1 tsp cumin

1 tsp dried thyme

1/2 tsp rock salt

1 tbsp sunflower oil#

Turn oven to 180C/Gas Mark 4

Put carrots and onions into a large bowl and pour over the oil.

Bash the sumac, cumin, thyme and salt together in a pestle and mortar.

Tip spice mix in to bowl, mix well.

Tip in to a non stick roasting pan and put in the oven for 30 mins.

Marinated Tomatoes

For every large tomato halved and sliced into half moons:

1 tbsp extra virgin oilve oil

1/2 tbsp white wine vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 tbsp fresh parsley coarsely chopped

Salt and pepper

Put the tomatoes in a sealable container.

Mix all other ingredients together and pour over the tomatoes, giving a good but gentle mix. 

Leave for at least 2 hours before serving. 

Do not refrigerate. 

Lime Yoghurt Dressing

Juice of 1/2 a lime

2 tbsp Greek yoghurt

1 1/2 tsp tahini 

Salt and pepper

Mix them all together, season to taste

To construct, put carrots and onions on bottom, layer with equivalent 1 marinated tomato, drizzle with half the dressing and garnish with chopped flat leaf parsley. 

Fig, Serrano and Gorgonzola Salad

When its warm outside and you can pair seasonal foods with simple complementary flavours in a mouth-watering salad - like fresh, ripe figs, Gorgonzola and Serrano ham with a fig and balsamic dressing on baby spinach - it is a win/win situation. You get to eat something that feels sophisticated and tastes delicious without having to heat a thing in your kitchen.

If you can't find fig vinegar, balsamic will do just as well.

Serves 2 as a main with bread or 4 as a starter.

Fig, Serrano and Gorgonzola Salad

2 handfuls of baby spinach, washed and drained

4 ripe figs, topped and quartered

50g Gorgonzola, cubed

75g Serrano ham, shredded

3 tbsp fig vinegar

6 tbsp olive oil

Salt and pepper

Chuck them all in a bowl however haphazardly you wish.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Salad

Right now everyone is extolling the virtues of British asparagus...

...I did so a few weeks ago in a light and fragrant risotto with peas and lemon but what with the weather finally turning I thought a salad would be a decadent treat for you all to snaffle in the garden or on the balcony with a cold glass of white and a hunk of good bread.

Some people may scoff at the wrapping of the asparagus with streaky bacon is sacrilege, it isn't, I assure you. By griddling the bacon wrapped asparagus you allow the fat to subtly flavour the delicate vegetable and end up with a perfectly cooked asparagus that is great to eat with your hands as much as it is with a knife and fork.

I used tarragon vinegar for the dressing to jar slightly against the mustard and be lifted by the sweetness of the honey, any vinaigrette combination works - to your taste be true. This is also the same when concerning the leaves or vegetables to include, I want this to be more of a jumping off lily-pad type of a salad.

NB. Vegetarians – griddled asparagus is delicious – the bacon is a decadence, not an essential.

Bacon-Wrapped Asparagus Salad

as many asparagus spears as there are rashers of streaky bacon.

big bag of salad leaves (I used rocket and baby spinach)

handful of baby plum tomatoes, quartered

Dressing

2tbsp tarragon vinegar

4 tbsp olive oil

1tsp mustard (I used coarse Dijon)

1/2 tsp honey

salt and pepper

Stretch the bacon rashers with a flat bladed knife, blunt end towards you. This will make the bacon thinner, crisper and quicker to cook.

Wrap the bacon around your asparagus, which will need any woody stems trimming.

Heat a griddle pan to almost smoking and then turn down to low and pop the bacon-wrapped asparagus in the griddle pan. (Alternatively you could fry or grill).

Cook for around 2 minutes on each side, until bacon is browned and crisped.

Spin fresh salad in salad spinner after washing.

Scatter on a platter with tomatoes and arrange bacon-wrapped asparagus spears.

In a jar, put all dressing ingredients in, put on lid, shake vigorously and pour over salad.

Use vegetable peeler to add Parmesan or other hard cheese.

Serve with crusty bread.

Balsamic Roasted Beetroot and Lentil Salad with Walnuts and creamy blue cheese

The Sun is Shining, Weather is Sweet...

... Makes me want to cook something savoury and moreish.

I headed out early Sunday morning, leaving Squirrelface snoozing, in to the wilds of Peckham to the farmer's market which, I'm sad to say, was a little underwhelming. I snaffled up some nice fat beetroot, some duck eggs, some smoky streaky bacon and half a loaf of granary bread, I'm hopeful that later in the year there will be more on offer.

I know the Great British Summertime is technically upon us but let us not kid ourselves, if and when it happens it will be brief and we will take it by the hands and dance the gin and tonic jig. Said jig needs something hearty and filling but not necessarily meaty.

So while you all made your roasts, I fashioned a salad that is so delicious I've made it at least 10 times since I created it one balmy June afternoon, under the influence of the gin and tonic jig.

It's great for lunchtime or teatime picnics, having in your carry-out for work or as a stand by snack in the fridge, it should keep for a week in an airtight container, but I doubt it will last that long. I sometimes pair it with a big leafy salad and slices of apple or pear but it would go wonderfully with a barbecued bit of lamb or beef too.

Green or Puy lentils work best here as they retain their shape very well and have a more contrasting flavour than the also shape holding brown.

Today I used Saint Agur because i found a cheap slab in the supermarket but I've had success with other strong creamy blue cheeses such as Dolcelatte, Gorgonzola or Roquefort. I'd not substitute Stilton as the bitter edge doesn't compliment so well.

Balsamic Roasted Beetroot and Lentil Salad with Walnuts and creamy blue cheese

100g Puy/green lentils

350g beetroot - peeled, ends discarded and chopped into bite-size pieces

75g walnuts - chopped coarsely 

100g strong and creamy blue cheese chopped and/or crumbled

4 tbsp balsamic vinegar

6 tbsp walnut oil

Saly & pepper to taste

Preheat the oven to 180C/Gas 4 and combine the oil and vinegar plus salt and pepper then pour over beetroot and mix.

Tilting the bowl so the oil and vinegar mixture is away from the beetroot and spoon in to an oven dish. (The reserved liquid will be the dressing for the salad.) Roast the beetroot for around 45 mins, giving it a shake after 20 mins or so.

Put lentils and two mugs of water in a heavy bottomed pan and bring to the boil, then simmer for 20 mins and drain if any water remains. Then refresh and drain again. Add to the bowl with the dressing.

When the beetroot is just caramelised take it out and let it cool. Then combine with the cheese and walnuts. Taste and season and add more dressing, if needed.

Yum it up!