Pomegranate Couscous Salad

Pomegranate Couscous Salad

Serves 6

There is so much flavour in this salad, it is the perfect accompliment to my Arabic slow cooked lamb.

 

Ingredients

2 cups couscous
1 bunch spring onions
1 red cpsicum finely diced
1 yellow capsicum finely diced
1/2 cup currants
1 pomegranate
1 cup fresh coriander roughly chopped
1/2 cup mint roughly chopped
1/2 cup pistachios
Dressing
1/2 cup olive oil
1 teas salt
1/2 teas all spice
1/2 teas sugar
2 teas curry powder
1 teas black pepper
1/2 cup lemon juice
1 tbs white balsamic

Method

Place couscous in a large bowl and cover with 2 cups boiling water, after 10 mins fluff the couscous with a fork.
When cool combine the salad ingredients.
For the dressing combine in a jar and shake well to combine, pour over the couscous.

To remove the seeds from the pomegranate cut in half and tap the shell with a rolling pin, I also use the juice from the fruit but that is up to you.

Beetroot, Feta and Spinach Salad

This salad was created, because I cleaned out my fridge ( strange I know). We had visitors and the fridge was full with leftovers and ingredients that hadn't quite made it to the chopping board, the beetroot was one of them. Because this is such a simple salad, its important to use good oil, balsamic and feta.

Ingredients

3 medium sized beetroot
160 gm baby spinach leaves
60 gm walnuts halves
100 gm feta cheese
4 spring onions sliced
1/2 cup fresh basil leaves roughly torn

Directions

Pre heat the oven to 200c, wrap beetroot in foil and roast for 1-1/2 hours , the beetroot should still be a little firm. Peel the beetroot and cut into 1 inch pieces, place in a bowl with 5tbs of olive oil and 3 tbs balsamic vinegar season well with salt and pepper, this will be your dressing. When the beetroot has cooled add to the remaining ingredients, crumble the feta on top.

My tip for peeling beetroot is to wear disposable gloves, I have a box of them under the sink, that is providing my kids havn't used them all for water bombs.

Vietnamese Chicken Salad

There are many versions of this salad, I played around with the ingredients and this is my version. I first made this a couple of years ago when I was having some friends over for lunch, it was a typically hot day in Dubai and this salad was light and refreshing, I served it with Arabic bread not traditional but great all the same.

Serves 4-6

Ingredients

2 large chicken breasts
1/2 Chinese cabbage shredded
2 carrots julienned
100gm snow peas julienned
1 red capsicum cut into thin strips
1 cup bean sprouts
1/2 cup mint leaves
1/2 cup coriander leaves
4tbs fried shallots
2 tbs sesame seeds ( lightly toasted)
Dressing
70 gms light brown sugar
70 ml water
2 cm piece ginger
2 cloves garlic
1 shallot
1 long red chilli
100mls fish sauce
juice of 2 limes

Directions

For the dressing, place the sugar and water in a sauce pan until the sugar has dissolved, remove from the heat and allow to cool. Place remaining dressing ingredients in a food processor and blend for 30 seconds or until you have a fairly smooth paste, add the cooled sugar syrup to the blender and pulse until combined.
Season the chicken with salt and pepper and fry in 2 tbs of oil until cooked, remove and cool. Shred the chicken once it has cooled and combine with the salad ingredients except for the fried shallots. Pour the dressing over the salad and garnish with the fried shallots.
You can add extra chilli and coriander as a garnish if you wish.