Crispy breaded chicken & sweetcorn salad with jalapeño and garlic ranch dressing

Crispy breaded chicken & sweetcorn salad with jalapeño and garlic ranch dressing

• 1-2 Tbsp roughly chopped pickled jalapeno 
• 1 medium garlic clove, minced
• 2 Tbsp roughly chopped red onion
• 1 Tbsp fresh lime juice
• 355ml mayonnaise 
• 237ml of buttermilk
• 1118ml of sour cream
• Small handful of coriander leaves
• 1/2 tsp sugar
• 2 sliced chicken breasts
• Golden breadcrumbs
• 1 beaten egg
• Handful of plain flour
• Vegetable oil
• Salad leaves
• Chopped cherry tomatoes
• 1 ripe avocado sliced
• Large handful of corn kernels 

In a food processor add the roughly chopped pickled jalapenos, garlic cloves, chopped onion and lime juice. Add the mayonnaise, buttermilk, sour cream, coriander,  garlic, and sugar, pour into a container and place into the fridge.

Place the breadcrumbs, beaten egg and flour into separate bowls.  Dip the sliced chicken into the egg then the flour and lastly the breadcrumbs until all pieces are well coated.

Pour enough vegetable oil into a large frying pan to cover the base by about half inch deep, heat and then add the coated chicken strips, cook for around 20 minutes or so until cooked through and crispy.  Remove from the pan and place onto some kitchen paper to soak up any excess oil.

Plate up your salad, top with the avocado, corn and tomatoes, add the chicken strips and drizzle over the ranch dressing.

This is an amazing salad, perfect for summer.  You can dry fry the sweetcorn to add some charred edges to it, also with the dressing you can increase the heat by adding some fresh chopped jalapeño pepper, adjust it however suits your tastes.  The dressing can be kept in the fridge for up to 5 days.

Steak with a beetroot salad and horseradish cream

Steak with a beetroot salad and horseradish cream

• 2 sirloin steaks
• Handful of cooked baby beetroot, halved
• Handful of baby plum tomatoes, halved
• Salad of choice
• 2 tbsp finely grated horseradish
• 125g sour cream
• 1 tsp lemon juice
• Few glugs of Worcestershire sauce
• Salt & Pepper
• Olive oil

Method:

Combine the sour cream, horseradish, lemon juice and a few grinds of black pepper and set aside.  You can check how hot the horseradish is and if you fancy it hotter add another tablespoon.

Heat a frying pan over a medium heat.  Drizzle a small amount of olive oil over each side of the steak and rub in (a pastry brush is good for this) and add a few grinds of fresh black pepper and sea salt.  Add the steaks to the pan and cook for several minutes on each side, obviously longer depending how you like your steak.  When turning the steak over I add a few glugs of Worcestershire which combined with the juices from the steak makes a nice little gravy to drizzle over the cooked steak.

Once the steak is cooked, set aside and leave to rest for a few minutes.  Place your salad onto your plates, add the beetroot and tomatoes and dollop over the horseradish cream.  Add the steak to the plate and drizzle on some of the cooking juices and you are set to go!

This is a cracking dish and so simple as well.  I used chilli infused beetroot and a hot and spicy salad mix, so with the horseradish this dish had a good kick which we love.  Again, use what salad you like and plain beetroot works just as well, enjoy.

Prawn, mango, avocado salad with an orange and coriander dressing

Prawn, mango, avocado salad with an orange and coriander dressing

• Pack of cooked king prawns
• 1 mango, peeled and sliced
• 1 avocado, peeled and sliced
• Bag of watercress
• Juice of half an orange
• 8 tbsp olive oil
• Salt and pepper
• Large handful of chopped coriander 
• Cayenne pepper

Method:

Mix together the orange juice, olive oil, coriander and salt and pepper (to taste).  The mix should emulsify and thicken when you combine it, you will know when you see it.

Plate up with the a large handful of watercress on each plate and top with the prawns (having rinsed them first), avocado and mango then drizzle over the dressing and sprinkle some cayenne pepper over the top to give it that little kick.

Seriously, this recipe is so quick and easy to make its unreal but it has such a great taste you would think it takes longer to get something that good!  Great for this time of year sitting out with a cold one, what more could you want?

Turkish Style Tuna & Halloumi Salad with Herby Salsa

Turkish Style Tuna & Halloumi Salad with Herby Salsa

• 2 tins tuna, drained
• 1/2 pepper thinly sliced
• 1 carrot, thinly peeled in to ribbons
• 1/2 cucumber thinly sliced
• 1/2 red onion finely diced
• 3 tomatoes, deseeded and finely chopped
• 500g sliced Halloumi
• Handful of chopped coriander
• Handful of chopped mint (reserve a pinch to garnish the dish)
• 6 tbsp olive oil
• 2 tbsp pomegranate molasses (available from supermarkets)
• A pinch of Turkish pepper flakes (ordered mine from Amazon)
• Sea salt and ground black pepper
• 1 punnet of Sweet Chili baby beetroot
• Bag of salad

Method:

To make the salsa, combine the tomatoes, onion, herbs, pepper flakes, molasses and 4 tbsp of olive oil, mix together and season to taste with salt and pepper.

Heat the remaining 2 tbsp of olive oil in a frying pan over a medium heat, fry the halloumi for a few minutes each side until golden and then set aside.

On a large serving dish empty the bag of salad and scatter over the carrot, peppers and cucumber.  Top the salad with the halloumi and the tuna and then drizzle on the salsa. Add the Sweet Chili baby beetroot around the edge.

This recipe serves 4 and whoever the lucky people are to share it with you, they will thank you, trust me!  We had this last night for dinner and the two of us polished it off, it was that good.  This recipe is perfect for this time of year and is great on its own or to go alongside a BBQ, this is what al fresco dining was invented for. 

 I shall be making this again in the next few days, thinking I may top with some poached eggs, what do you think?

Smoked Chicken Salad

Smoked Chicken Salad

• 1 smoked chicken breast, thinly sliced 
• 1 large ripe avocado, peeled, stone removed and cut into small chunks
• 1 yellow pepper, deseeded and finely chopped
• 2 tomatoes, quartered, seeds removed and finely sliced into small chunks
• Quarter of a cucumber, thinly sliced and cut into small pieces
• 3 rashers of streaky bacon
• Bag of mixed lettuce leafs 
• 1 tsp Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp lemon juice
• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

Method:
This is a bit of a cheat recipe as the only thing I'm actually making is the salad dressing, however this was such a tasty salad, it would be rude not to share it with you all!

Place the bacon on a baking tray and grill for 5-10 minutes until crispy.  Leave the bacon to one side to cool slightly and then chop into small bite size pieces.

Put the lemon juice, mustard and olive oil into a small bowl and whisk together until it thickens, season with salt and pepper to taste.  This recipe is for two, naturally adjust the ingredients to accommodate the number of guests you are feeding.

Dress two plates with the salad leafs and sprinkle over the pepper, cucumber, avocado and tomato.  Place the sliced chicken over the top of the salad and sprinkle over the bacon and drizzle with the salad dressing.

This is such a quick and easy recipe to throw together, who said cooking had to be complicated!  I'm sure you will love it as much as we did, enjoy.

Wedge salad with blue cheese dressing

Wedge Salad with blue cheese dressing

I recently made this to take to a friends BBQ, it seemed to go down well!  This is such a quick, simple yet super tasty salad, just perfect for a group gathering.  I made this for 8 people, naturally you can adjust the ingredients to fit the amount of guests you are planning on entertaining.  I would say I do like a good strong blue cheese dressing hence using the quantity of cheese that I did, you can use less if you prefer a milder taste to your dressing.

• 2 x iceberg lettuce
• 8 rashers of smoked bacon
• Handful of cherry tomatoes, halved
• Large handful of grated cheese
• 100g buttermilk
• 4-5 tbsp sour cream
• Handful of chives finely diced
• Glug of extra virgin olive oil
• Juice of 1/2 a lemon
• Salt and pepper to taste
• 250g crumbled blue cheese

Method:
Place the bacon on a baking tray and cook under the grill for around 10 minutes or so, once done set aside and leave to cool.

To make the dressing, place the buttermilk and sour cream into a bowl, along with the chives, olive oil, lemon juice, salt and pepper and the crumbled blue cheese, stir well and place into the fridge until ready to serve.

Slice the end off each lettuce, removing the stalk end, remove the outer leaves and then quarter each lettuce and place onto a large platter.  Cut the bacon into small chunks and sprinkle over the lettuce along with the grated cheese.  Scatter the halved cherry tomatoes around the platter and drizzle the dressing over the top of everything and enjoy!

Roast Beef Salad With Mustard & Horseradish Dressing

Roast Beef Salad with Mustard & Horseradish Dressing

This isn't a full blown recipe, more of a suggestion as to what to do with leftovers when you have a roast dinner.  We love nothing more than a nice bit of roast beef on a Sunday, to be fair, we don't usually have leftovers as we both love roasts and also we are both pretty greedy!  However on this occasion, having cooked a piece of beef that feeds 6 people and there were only the two of us, we found ourselves with plenty of leftovers!  Rather than snacking on the leftover beef, I decided to put it into a salad the following day, which I have to say was pretty tasty.  The only recipe to this dish is the dressing that I used.

For the dressing:

• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1/2 tbsp mustard of your choice
• 1/2 tbsp horseradish
• 1 tbsp red wine vinegar
• Salt and pepper

It's as simple as this, whisk together the ingredients with a pinch of salt and pepper until you create an emulsion, that is it!

For my salad I plated up some mixed leaves, radishes, green pepper, cucumber and tomato which I then topped with a warmed Yorkshire pudding, over which I then drizzled the dressing.

Such a simple dish but boy was it good!  I must make a point next time we have a roast to make sure there are leftovers as I will definitely be making this again!

Griddled Chicken with quinoa Greek salad

Griddled Chicken with quinoa Greek salad

• 225g quinoa
• 25g butter
• 1 red chilli deseeded and finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove crushed
• 400g chicken mini fillets
• 1 ½ tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
• 300g vine tomatoes, roughly chopped
• Handful pitted black Kalamata olives
• 1 red onion finely sliced
• 100g feta cheese, crumbled
• Small bunch of mint leaves, chopped
• Juice and zest ½ lemon

 Method:-

Cook the quinoa following the pack instructions, then rinse in cold water and drain thoroughly.

Meanwhile mix the butter, chilli and garlic into a paste.  Toss the chicken fillets in 2 tsp of the olive oil with some seasoning.  Lay in a hot griddle pan and cook for 3-4 minutes each side or until cooked through.  Transfer to a plate, dot with the spicy butter and set aside to melt. 

Next tip the tomatoes, olives, onion, feta and mint into a bowl.  Toss in the cooked quinoa. Stir through the remaining olive oil, lemon juice and zest, season well.  Serve with the chicken fillets on top, drizzled with any buttery chicken juices. 

This is a nice light zesty dinner with scope for chopping and changing the ingredients to suit your own taste.  As an addition I added some rocket to the dish, you could also add roughly chopped cucumber.  The recipe is courtesy of BBC goodfood    

Mexican tuna nicoise

Mexican tuna nicoise

Well, originally we were due to have tuna salad this evening however it was pretty chilly out and I got to thinking what can I do to pep this up, and this is what I came up with and boy was it tasty....

• 1 red pepper thinly sliced
• 2 flour tortillas
• 2 tbsp of kankun chipotle sauce
• 1/4 block of feta cheese (cubed)
• 4 tbsp sweetcorn
• 1 jar of line caught tuna
• Couple of handfuls of pea shoots
• Handful of sliced black olives
• 2 soft boiled eggs
• Drizzle of rapeseed vinaigrette

Method:-

Spread the kankun sauce over the flour tortillas, place on a baking tray and place in the oven at 200 degrees for around 10 minutes.  Once done remove and leave to one side to cool slightly.  Bring to the boil a small pan of water and boil the eggs for 5 and a half minutes, then rinse under cold water to stop the cooking process.  

Scatter the pea shoots over the tortillas along with the sweetcorn and sliced peppers.  Break up the tuna and place on top of the tortilla and crumble the feta on the top and scatter the black olives over it.  Carefully peel the soft boiled egg and place on top of each tortilla.  Drizzle with the rapeseed dressing (or dressing of choice) cut into the egg so the yolk oozes out and enjoy.

I really hope you enjoy this as much as we did, was something different and spur of the moment and it worked.

Mango & Lime Marinaded Chicken Salad With Bacon & Avocado

Mango & Lime Marinaded Chicken Salad With Bacon & Avocado

• 2 Chicken breast cut into thick slices
• 1 Avocado sliced
• 1 Pepper sliced
• Bag of salad
• 4 slices of bacon cut into small pieces
• Marinade of choice, I used mango and lime
• Cherry tomatoes halved
• Cucumber cut into small pieces

Method :-
Place the sliced chicken pieces into a container, add your marinade, mix well and place into the fridge for at least 30 minutes.  Fry the bacon in a small amount of oil until crisp, once done remove and place onto a plate a cover with kitchen roll to remove any excess oil.  Either fry or cook your chicken in the oven for around 20 minutes.  Dress your plate with the salad, add the peppers, tomatoes, cucumber, avocado and chicken pieces.  I drizzled a rapeseed dressing over it which added some additional flavour.  

This is a quick and easy light dinner which shouldn't take long to put together.

Cobb Salad

Cobb Salad

• 2 Chicken breasts
• 1 Large pinch of sweet smoked paprika
• Olive oil
• Sea salt & Ground black pepper
• 4 Slices of pancetta
• 2 Large eggs
• 1 Romaine lettuce
• 1 Ripe avocado 
• 125g Cherry tomatoes halved
• 1 Punnet of cress

For the dressing

• 50g Stilton cheese
• 1/2 Bunch of fresh chives
• Extra virgin olive oil
• 2tbsp Greek yoghurt
• 50ml Buttermilk
• Juice of 1 lemon
• 1/2tsp Worcestershire sauce

Method:-

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees.  Place the chicken into a snug fitting dish with the paprika, drizzle of olive oil and a little salt and pepper, toss well until the chicken is coated and the place in the oven for 25 minutes.  Place the pancetta over the top of the chicken and return to the oven for 10-15 minutes until cooked through.

Bring a small pan of water to the boil and cook the eggs for 6 minutes for soft-boiled.  Remove from the heat and run under cold water in order to stop the cooking process.

To make the dressing, crumble the Stilton into a large jug.  Finely chop and add the chives along with a glug of extra virgin olive oil and the remaining ingredients.  Whisk well, season to taste and pop in the fridge until needed.

Once the chicken is cooked, remove from the oven and leave to one side to cool slightly. Remove the outer leaves from the lettuce then roughly chop and place into a medium sized bowl.      Halve the avocado and remove the stone, peel and roughly chop and place into the bowl along with the cherry tomatoes.  

Shred the chicken with two forks and add to the lettuce along with the crumbled pancetta. Carefully peel the soft boiled egg and place on salad. Pour the dressing over the salad and mix through, snip the cress on top and serve.

This is a light tasty lunch and for more of a cheese flavour, add extra cheese to the dressing to really pep it up. Recipe from Jamie Oliver.

Fried halloumi & chorizo Salad

                   Fried halloumi & chorizo Salad

• 1 small red onion
• 1/2 cucumber, cut into thick slices
• 200g cherry tomatoes, halved
• Sliced chorizo
• 50g kalamata or other black olives, stoned
• 50g plain flour
• ½ tsp smoked paprika
• 250g halloumi cheese, cut into 8 slices
• 2 tbsp rapeseed or olive oil
• Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• Lucy's raspberry dressing (or dressing of choice)

In a small bowl, whisk together the flour, paprika and some salt and pepper. Moisten the halloumi slices slightly with water, then press into the seasoned flour and shake off any excess. Heat the oil in a large frying pan and fry the halloumi over a medium heat for about two minutes on each side, until golden and slightly softened on the inside.  Heat a separate pan and fry the chorizo until crispy.

Toss the salad vegetables with the dressing, turning them over with your hands to make sure everything is lightly coated. Divide the salad between your plates and top with the hot halloumi and chorizo  and serve immediately. Made with Steves Leaves and Lucys Dressings

Duck & Watermelon Salad

Duck & Watermelon Salad

• 2 Duck breasts
• Vegetable oil for frying
• Handful of raw cashew nuts
• Pinch of sea salt
• 2-4 tablespoons Hoisin sauce
• 2 cups 1-inch cubed seedless watermelon
• 1 small packet of basil leaves
• 1 small packet of mint leaves
• 1 small packet of coriander leaves
• 2 thinly sliced shallots
• Olive oil
• 1 clove garlic (minced)
• 1 birdseye chilli (finely chopped)
• 125ml fresh lime juice
• 3 tablespoons caster sugar

Pour 4 inches of vegetable oil into a large deep saucepan and heat, once hot add the cashews and fry until crisp, remove and drain on some kitchen towel, sprinkle with salt whilst hot.  Score the fat on top of the duck breasts and add to the pan, turning to brown on all sides and until the fat is crisp, this should take 4-10 minutes, once done remove from the pan and leave to one side to cool.  Once cooled cut the duck breast into thick slithers, place into a bowl with the Hoisin sauce.

Combine the watermelon, basil, mint and coriander in a bowl, add the duck meat, cashews and shallots and toss together.

To make the dressing, add the garlic, chilli, lime juice and sugar to a small bowl, mix together until the sugar dissolves, once done add one or two teaspoons of olive oil and mix together.  Drizzle as much or as little dressing over the salad and serve. 

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Line caught tuna and grilled Haloumi rainbow salad

Tuna & grilled Haloumi rainbow salad

• 1 jar line caught tuna
• Sliced black olives
• Salad leaves of your choice
• Haloumi
• Soft boiled eggs (1 per serving)

Slice the Haloumi and place on a baking tray and put under a moderate grill. You can brush the Haloumi with olive oil or a flavoured oil of your choice before grilling.When it starts to brown turn over and grill the other side. Keep an eye on it as it can burn very quickly.

Boil your eggs for 5 minutes then run under cold water to halt the cooking process, then leave to one side for a further 5 minutes.

Place your salad leaves on your plate and position the Haloumi around the leaves and then dress with the tuna, I like to leave it in chunky strips. Scatter the olives over the salad and then lightly drizzle with a salad dressing of your choice, for this I used a rapeseed vinaigrette. Lastly carefully peel your eggs (remember they are soft boiled and can split) and then place on top of the salad and gently cut it in half and let the yolk ooze down into the salad.

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