All Sorts of Salads
Chantal Lascaris Struik Lifestyle. R230 (recommended selling price)
Guys, salad doesn’t have to be iceberg lettuce, bland old cucumber and boring tomatoes. With simple, cheap ingredients you can make a salad that even the most ardent meat eaters will love.
Chantal Lascaris’ recipe book, All Sorts of Salads, contains an array of scrumptious salad variations. From zucchini carpaccio to a spicy fillet salad, these dishes will diversify the way you get your greens in. Salads are also a great way to get healthy for Spring. Here’s one of our favourites:
AUBERGINE AND SWEET PEPPER TOWERS
Ingredients:
2 yellow peppers
2 red peppers
2 green peppers
1/2 tsp finely chopped garlic
1 tbsp peeled and finely chopped onion
1/2 cup olive oil, plus extra for frying
juice of 1 lemon
1 tbsp white wine vinegar
2 aubergines, sliced into rounds
4 rounds feta cheese
micro leaves to garnish
salt and pepper to taste
1. Preheat the oven’s grill. Arrange the peppers on a baking tray and place under the grill for about 10 minutes, turning to blacken all sides. When they are ready, place the peppers in sealable bags and allow to sweat for 30 minutes. Don’t mix them; rather keep the colours separate.
2. Once the peppers have cooled, remove them from the bags and peel off their skins. Next, cut them in half and remove all the seeds and membranes. Using a cookie cutter about 7cm in diameter, cut a circle from each of the pepper halves and finely chop the leftover bits.
3. Place the leftover peppers in a bowl along with the garlic and onion.
4. Whisk the olive oil, lemon juice and vinegar together and mix into the
pepper mixture.
5. Heat some olive oil in a non-stick frying pan and fry the aubergine slices until softened.
6. Using the same cookie cutter as before, cut a circle out of each feta round.
7. To assemble the towers, place a round of feta on the bottom and top with alternate layers of aubergine and pepper slices. Scatter the leftover pepper mixture on top, garnish with micro leaves and season to taste.