Best Dressed Salads

WORDS AND IMAGES KATHY PATERSON

Three simple salad recipes and my love of sherry vinegar. Recipes jam-packed with flavour and nutrition and put together in quick time.

Sherry vinegar is crisp with acidity balanced by nuttiness and caramel notes. It both intensifies and brightens flavours in a salad, and I often splash a little sherry vinegar over green leafy salads. Sherry vinegar is brilliant when added to the pan juices of roasted chicken to make a pan sauce. The feathery fronds of foraged wild fennel, roughly chopped or torn between your fingers, is a wonderful addition to salads. Be mindful of how much you use, as you don’t want it to overpower the other flavours, or the whole salad for that matter.

Marinated Green Beans

The beans will lose their bright green colour after a few hours if making ahead, but there is no loss of flavour.

SERVES 4

400g green beans, trimmed, left whole or sliced 1 shallot, finely chopped 2 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced 1 green chilli, deseeded and finely chopped 1 handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped 3 tbsp sherry vinegar 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil flaky salt

Steam or cook the green beans in salted boiling water for about 2 minutes, until bite-tender, then drain and quickly refresh under the cold tap. Drain well then put into a bowl. Stir in the shallot, spring onion, parsley, chilli and pour over the vinegar and oil. Season with salt then toss gently to combine. Leave to marinate for 10 minutes at room temperature to allow the flavours to mingle. Put into a salad bowl for serving. Change it up – Replace shallot with half a red onion (finely chopped). Other herbs that work well are a combination of parsley, basil, a little sweet marjoram and fennel fronds.

Cherry Tomato Salad

A bright and cheerful salad, without the need for olive oil (in my view!). For added flavour and substance, add in some thin slices of cured meat. Pancetta is truly delicious – pan-fry slices until dark golden and crisp then crumble a little before adding to the salad at the last minute.

SERVES 4

400g cherry tomatoes, halved 2–3 sticks celery, strings removed with a peeler and finely sliced 4 spring onions, trimmed and finely sliced 1 handful of flat leaf parsley leaves, roughly chopped 1 tbsp roughly chopped feathery fennel fronds, or use dill 1 tsp nigella seeds (available at Herbal Dispensary and Vetro) 1 tbsp sherry vinegar (or an aged balsamic vinegar) flaky salt, for sprinkling

Put the cherry tomatoes, celery, spring onion and herbs in a shallow serving bowl. Sprinkle over the nigella seeds then drizzle over the vinegar. Sprinkle with the flaky salt.

Cucumber Salad

Refreshing with a punchy hit from the shallots. The dressing is quite thin so use some crusty bread to mop up all the juices.

SERVES 4

DRESSING

½ cup kefir yoghurt (I used Raglan Food Co natural kefir yoghurt smoothie - available at Herbal Dispensary) 1 tbsp sherry vinegar, or use your favourite white or fruit vinegar 1 tbsp honey flaky salt

SALAD

1 telegraph cucumber, thinly sliced 2 shallots, halved and thinly sliced 4 tbsp chopped mixed herbs, such as flat leaf parsley, dill or foraged wild fennel and chives 2 tbsp white sesame seeds, toasted

In a bowl, whisk together the kefir yoghurt, vinegar and honey. Season dressing with salt. Put the cucumber slices on a large shallow plate and top with the shallots. Sprinkle over the herbs and sesame seeds, then drizzle with enough dressing to moisten well. Tips – Finely chop the shallots if you prefer. Add some finely sliced spring onion tops (green part) to the salad as I have in image. Change it up by adding some crumbled feta to the salad.

Kathy Paterson

Kathy Paterson is a recipe developer, food stylist and photographer. A plentiful herb garden and a trial and error vegetable garden give Kathy the starting place for her recipes along with her love of the classics with a modern twist.

www.kathypaterson.co.nz