mint |

I moved country. It was about time – after all, I’d reached the 2.5 year limit, which is apparently the longest amount of time that I’m able to stay still for. Not that I’d want to suggest I’ve been very adventurous with my move: I find myself but a 50 minute flight from London in the rainy, grey Hague – a place near and dear to my heart.

The good news is that I’m back working in war crimes, which I’m ecstatic about. The bad news is that I had to leave my photographer behind. Bleurgh. I mean, I’ll see him in 5 days so, you know, I’ll be fine. In the meantime, though, I’m trying to figure out how to do food photography, so bear with me folks.

This is a salad I made up a little while ago and, crucially, one that I figured I could make in the sublet I’m renting just now. (Side note: I can’t find the vegetable peeler. Do you think some people just don’t have vegetable peelers?) The salad’s good on its own but I think it’s probably better as a side – with some tasty, blackened lamb or chicken.

Ingredients

big handful of fresh, washed spinach

1 carrot, grated

1 avocado

1/2 fennel bulb, sliced

10 mint leaves, torn

10 basil leaves, torn

20 blanched hazelnuts (approx)

Dressing

zest of 1/2 orange

juice 1/2 lemon

squeeze of honey

1 tbsp sesame oil

1/2 tsp black pepper

pinch salt

Method

Step 1: Get a big bowl and throw in a big handful of spinach.

Step 2: Dice fennel bulb into hazelnut-sized pieces. Add to the bowl.

Step 3: Halve avocados; scoop out flesh and add to the bowl.

Step 4: Peel carrots; grate or peel into ribbons. I grated because…see above. Add to the bowl, along with mint, basil and hazelnuts.

For the dressing

Step 1: Add all ingredients to a jar and give it a good shake. Go easy on the honey — too sweet and it will taste store bought. Tasty, but store bought. Be generous with the pepper. Spice is nice.

Step 2: Toss the dressing in on top of the salad and mix it all up so it gets a nice, zesty, sweet, nutty flavour all the way through. Done.

Last night was our office Christmas party. True to form, I drank far more than I intended to – and then left without telling anyone. They don’t call it an Irish exit for nothing. Anyway, as you might imagine, today I had a bad dose of The Fear. And as I ran out the door (late) to meet someone in Brixton this morning, fighting back waves of nausea, smudged makeup still under my eyes, one slice of toast and a cup of ill-advised coffee swilling around in my poor, poisoned stomach, I thought to myself, what the f*ck am I going to do with that roast chicken sitting in my fridge?

Aha. Chicken salad. Which, aside from being truly delicious, also happens to be a solid hangover cure. So, here we go:

Ingredients

Salad

200g roast chicken, torn into strips

50g split red lentils

200ml vegetable stock

1 clove garlic, grated

3 roast peppers, peeled

1 red onion, peeled and sliced

250g cherry tomatoes

200g boiled chickpeas

1 ripe avocado

50g sheep’s cheese

3-4 sprigs of mint leaves, torn

zest of 1/2 orange

Dressing

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp sesame seed oil

1/2 tsp English mustard

1/2 tsp ground cumin

1/2 tsp black pepper

pinch salt

juice 1 lemon

Method

Step 1: place chicken in a pre-heated oven at 180c for about an hour and a half, depending on weight. Remove, cover with foil and set to one side to rest. When it’s cool enough to handle, tear into strips and add to your salad bowl.

A note on chicken: I buy free range and/or organic chicken – primarily for ethical reasons but they do actually taste a whole lot better too. You can get a chicken for less than £6 in Sainsbury’s and, given that you can get 4 meals out of it (6 if you use the bones and any scraps for chicken soup), I think that’s pretty good value for money. And I assure you, I am on a budget.

Step 2: cook the lentils in the vegetable stock and garlic on a medium heat for about 15 mins, until the water has boiled off but the lentils still have a teensy bit of a bite to them. Once cooled, add to salad bowl.

Step 3: place peppers on a roasting tray in a pre-heated oven at 200c for about 40 mins or so, turning once in the middle. About 20 mins in, add a sliced red onion to the tray. Set tray aside to cool or, if time is of the essence, run peppers under cold water for a minute or two. Peel, cut into strips and add to the salad bowl, along with the red onion.

Step 4: wash tomatoes and add to salad bowl. I had mine whole and raw today because I wanted to give the salad some bit, but I’ve been known to slice or roast them with the peppers. Whatever takes your fancy.

Step 5: next, add the chickpeas. I use pre-boiled, canned chickpeas, rinsed and drained. If you feel like cooking them up yourself, even better.

Step 6: cut open the avocado and scoop out the flesh into the salad bowl.

Step 7: crumble white cheese on top of the salad mix.

Step 8: add zest and torn mint leaves. I don’t own a zester right now so I’m using the parmesan side of the cheese grater which, as far as I’m concerned, works just fine.

Step 9: mix salad dressing ingredients together in a cup, giving it a good stir to make sure none of the dry ingredients clump, and drizzle over the salad ingredients.

Step 10: mix salad by hand and voila, you are done.

Serves 4 (unless hungover, in which case 2)

mint

Hazelnut, fennel and orange salad

Roast chicken salad