Butternut Squash, lentil and goats cheese salad

Serves 4

Ingredients 

1 bag baby leaf salad

1 butternut squash

1 tin green put lentils

1 log soft goats cheese

Balsamic glaze (Asda do a good one)

Cracked black pepper

Chilli salt

Put oven on at 180 degrees.

Cut butternut squash in half, put one half aside (see other squash recipe!).  Scoop out the seeds to leave a clean hollow.  Gently with a sharp knife, cut lines lengthways in the squash flesh without piercing the skin, do the same across the squash to make cubes in the flesh again without piercing the skin.

Rub the flesh with olive oil and sprinkle with pepper and salt, I use chilli salt for a little spice.

Put squash into a roasting tin flesh side up and roast in oven for an hour or until flesh is squishy.

Take out of oven once done and allow to cool.

Once cooled, put bag of lettuce leaves in a bowl, add about 2/3 of tin of lentils over the top.  Scoop the flesh out of the butternut squash skin, it should come out in more manageable pieces, and lay on top of the lentils.  Use about half of the goats cheese log, either chop into cubes, or I just break into pieces with my fingers, spread around the salad.

Drizzle with balsamic glaze and serve.

Healthy Greek cous cous salad

Here's a healthier take on a greek pasta salad I make :)

• 200g cous cous, soaked for 20min in 250ml water (I use bulgar wheat as well, or quinoa)
• 4 heaped teaspoons pesto (red or green, your choice)
• 50ml white wine vinegar
• 25ml olive oil
• couple dashes lemon juice
• 2 chopped spring onions
• quarter cucumber chopped fine
• 16 baby plum tomatoes chopped into 9 
• Whole block of feta chopped up
• 1 small red chilli chopped fine
• Finely chopped fresh basil and oregano

Make up the cous cous and leave to soak.

Mix the pesto, vinegar, olive oil and lemon juice together with the chilli.  Once the cous cous has soaked for 20mins and is still warm, mix it through with the pesto mix and leave to soak for another 20 mins.

In the meantime, chop your onions, cucumber, tomatoes and feta and add to a large salad bowl.  Add in the soaked cous cous and the chopped herbs and mix through well.

Season to taste with salt and pepper.

New potato salad

Fantastic for BBQs in the summer :)

• 1 bag small new potatoes like Charlotte
• 3 sticks celery, chopped
• 4-5 spring onions, chopped
• half cucumber chopped into quarters
• half tub reduced fat creme fraiche
• half tub low fat Philadelphia (I used the chive one, but any could work)
• 1 teaspoon wholegrain mustard
• 1 teaspoon english mustard
• salt and pepper

Cook the potatoes and leave to cool.  Any large potatoes slice in half so all potatoes are roughly the same size.

Put the creme fraiche, Philadelphia and mustards in a small bowl and mix together.

Get a large bowl and put in the cooled potatoes, celery, onions and cucumber and mix well, then add the creme fraiche mix and mix until all the potatoes are coated.  Add salt and pepper to taste.

Beetroot, fennel, turnip and feta salad

• 1 packet feta cheese
• 3-4 small raw (unpickled) beetroot
• 1 fennel bulb
• 1 small turnip
• 1 bulb garlic
• assorted salad leaves
• cucumber and spring onion if desired

Peel the garlic bulbs and leave whole. Chop up beetroot into small wedges (about 8 from each root), and chop turnip up into same size wedges, cut fennel longway down centre and then peel each leaf off bit by bit until you get to the heart. Put all in a foil tray and drizzle with oil and balsamic vinegar. Put in an oven about 180C for 1hr until soft or cook on a hot BBQ.

Put assorted leaves into a bowl and pour hot roasted veg and all juices over. Sprinkle with crumbled feta cheese and serve.

Bresola salad

• 1 packet Bresola (or can use thin roast been if you're not keen on air dried meats)
• Rocket, watercress and spinach salad (or other peppery leaves)
• Blue Cheese (use according to your taste, Docelatte works, but so will Danish Blue or Stilton)
• 1 packet Baby new potatoes
• 250ml reduced fat creme fraiche
• 125ml reduced fat double cream (elmlea)
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice
• 1-2 tablespoons horseradish sauce (according to your taste and how hot you want it)
• Bunch of chives, chopped into 1/2 cm pieces

In a bowl, mix together the creme fraiche, cream, lemon juice, horseradish and chives. Cover with clingfilm and put in fridge to allow flavours to develop.

Put the potatoes on to cook, strain, allow to cool and chop in halves.

Add the horseradish cream sauce a spoonful at a time into the potatoes until they are well coated.

To plate up put a layer of lettuce on the plate, top with the beef, a couple of slices per person. Then add a spoon on the potato salad and spinkle with blue cheese.

Chargrilled Garden Vegetables

• 1 large fennel bulb
• 1 large aubergine
• 1 red pepper
• 3 green courgettes
• 2 yellow globe courgettes
• 6 baby leeks

For the dressing

• 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• tablespoon red wine vinegar
• 1 teaspoon minced garlic
• 1/4 teaspoon crushed red chile
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Extras if want to make it more salady

• 1/2lb fresh mozzarella
• 1/2 cup pitted black olives
• 3 tablespoons roughly chopped fresh basil

Mix the dressing ingredients together put in large closeable bag (eg. zip lock)

Prepare the veg as follows and add to the dressing bag. Cut fennel bulb in half long ways and add both halves. Slice aubergine into thick long slices about 2cm thick. Cut sides away from pepper so have 4 large flat pieces. Cut courgettes in half, then slice each half longways to get long slices about 0.5-1cm thick. Slice the globe courgettes into circles the same. Just add the leeks at the end.

Ensure all veg get coated in dressing, then can leave in fridge till ready to grill later.

When grilling the veg, keep the remaining dressing from the bag as you will use it later.

Start with the fennel first and place cut side down on the grill, over direct medium heat, with the lid closed as much as possible for 5-7 mins. Turn the fennel over and grill for another 3 mins, then move over indirect heat, with lid closed as much as possible, until crisp and tender when pierced with the tip of a knife, 12 to 15 mins. Remove from grill and leave to cool.

Place other veg on grill, and cook until chargrilled on each side but not overdone.

Cut away the hard triangular core of the fennel and then cut the remaining into 1/2 inch pieces. Cut the other veg into similar sizes and place all in a large bowl. Pour dressing over and toss all pieces in dressing. Either serve like this or add the salad ingredients as well.

Adapted from Weber's Charcoal Grilling - the art of cooking with live fire by Jamie Purviance http://www.amazon.co.uk/Webers-Charcoal-Grilling-Cooking-Live/dp/0376020474/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1248604136&sr=8-1

Feta, Pea and Rocket Salad

Again as per usual, quantities are a bit vague ;)

• Feta cheese, crumbled (I used about 1/3 pkt)
• Fresh peas, podded (I used aroud 20 small pods)
• Mange tout, chopped up around 0.5cm wide (I used around 10 nice pods)
• Rocket (fresh if you have it)
• Balsamic vinegar

Place all ingredients in bag, add balasmic vinegar, close bag up and shake to coat. Place into bowl and serve.