End of summer salads
Salads at the end of summer are my all-time favourite thing to eat. The produce is so flavoursome you really don’t need to add or do much to make it taste like the best thing you’ve ever eaten. For me, a delicious salad always includes a cheese to help balance out the sweetness of the fruit. Use the best quality cheese from your local cheesemonger, good quality extra virgin olive oil, and produce that is in peak season. Your salads will taste like restaurant quality.
Here are three salads in season to eat right now.
Fig, Tomato and Feta Salad
Ingredients
4–5 figs, sliced
2–3 Black Russian tomatoes, sliced
White salad onion, thinly sliced
1 teaspoon ground sumac
50 ml sherry vinegar
100 ml extra virgin olive oil
1 block feta
Directions
Layer your sliced tomato and fig on a plate, followed by the onion. Drizzle the vinegar evenly over the tomatoes and figs, then place the block of feta on top.
Finish the salad by drizzling over the olive oil, dusting with sumac, and finishing with flaky sea salt.
Heirloom Cherry Tomato, Stracciatella and Basil
Ingredients
1 punnet heirloom cherry tomatoes, sliced in half
300 g good quality stracciatella
A handful of fresh basil
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper
Directions
Spread the stracciatella across the bottom of a serving plate and top with the sliced cherry tomatoes. Generously drizzle over good quality extra virgin olive oil, followed by flaky salt, pepper and fresh basil.
Blue Cheese, Peach and Jalapeño Salad
Ingredients
90 g blue cheese
⅓ cup mayonnaise
⅓ cup Greek yoghurt
½ lemon, juiced
½ garlic clove, finely grated
1 large peach, sliced into wedges
1 jalapeño, sliced
½ bunch chives
Butter lettuce
Olive oil
Salt and pepper
Directions
Make the dressing by placing the mayonnaise, blue cheese, garlic, lemon juice and half the chives in a bowl. Mix together. If it is a little thick, add a small amount of water to loosen. Taste and adjust with salt and pepper.
Place the butter lettuce on a serving plate, followed by the peach wedges. Drizzle over the dressing, scatter the remaining chives on top, and finish with olive oil and sliced jalapeños.
