Caesar salad for the diet conscious

I love when the weather warms up and it's salad time - lunch or dinner I am happy to have a big bowl of salad. There are many different salads out there, and often it's just a standard bowl of garden salad - or my version with feta Greek style (without the olives). But I can't pass up a good Caesar Salad. So when I purchased The 21-day Wonder Diet book by Woman's Weekly a couple of years ago - this is one of my favourite salads. Made in under 10 minutes, quick and easy too!!

Serves 1

YOU WILL NEED 

• 1 slice rye bread, cubed
• 1 slice prosciutto
• 2 tablespoons skim milk yoghurt
• 1/2 tablespoon lemon juice (this is to taste really, I like tart but add less if your not into lemon)
• 1/2 anchovy fillet, smooshed
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 baby cos lettuce
• 1 hard boiled or poached egg.

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180
2. Place a rack on a oven tray, then add prosciutto and bread. Pop into oven about 5-10 minutes - its just as long as it takes to do the next couple of steps.
3. Add egg to tepid water and bring to boil - or poach as you do!
4. Combine yoghurt, juice, anchovy and mustard in a small bowl.
5. Quarter and trim the baby cos, wash, and you can toss with dressing or as I prefer, just layer up in your bowl.
6. Remove from the oven your bread and prosciutto
7. Peel your egg and quarter - or drain the poached one.
8. Chop or just crumble your prosciutto over your lettuce, sprinkle on the croutons add your egg and drizzle with dressing - take a seat in the sun and enjoy!!!

Green bean salad with roasted cherry tomato vinaigrette

recipe from Curtis Stone Christmas Magic with Coles freebie cookbook.

Serves 8
Preparation 15 Min's
Cooking 15 Min's

Vinaigrette

• 200g Cherry or grape tomatoes, halved
• 1 tbsp Olive Oil
• 2 tsp Lemon zest
• 2 tbsp finely chopped shallots
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 1/2 cup olive oil

Salad

• 450g green beans, ends trimmed
• 600g cherry tomatoes halved
• 1/4 cup chopped basil

1. Preheat oven to 210
2. To make the vinaigrette, toss tomatoes with olive oil on a baking tray and season with salt and pepper. Roast for 10-12mins, or until golden brown. Remove and cool completely.
3. Once cool, roughly chop tomatoes into a paste and place in a medium mixing bowl with any leftover tomato juice. Add lemon zest, shallots, vinegar and olive oil and whisk well (I threw the lot into a blender and whizzed it up). Season to taste.
4. To make the salad, blanch beans in a pan of boiling salted water for 1-2mins, or until tender but crisp. Transfer to a bowl of ice water to cool completely. Strain and pat dry.
5. Place beans in to serving platter and toss over the halved raw tomatoes. Gently toss with the fresh basil and the vinaigrette.

Southern-Fried @ Home

A couple of weeks back Kylie emailed me and asked for my fake KFC Chicken recipe, and for the life of me I couldn't put my fingers on it, it's been so long since I cooked it. But with the house renovations happening and the cleaning and culling I have come accross this one which I think sounds delicious, I know it's too late for Kylies Birthday Boys dinner, but I thought I would share, think it might be something I try once the new stove is up and funcitoning (that might even be tomorrow)!!!

Servings: 4

Preparation Time: 5 minutes
Cooking: 40 minutes
Source
 
Ingredients

• 1 whole Chicken
• 4 extra drumsticks
• 1/2 cup plain wholemeal flour
• 1 teaspoon paprika
• 1 teaspoon dried thyme
• 1/2 teaspoon dried rosemary
• 1 egg
• 1/4 cup low-fat milk
• 1 tablespoon lemon juice

1. Preheat oven to 200C/180C Fan Forced. Lightly grease a baking tray. Cut chicken into 4 pieces, removing major bones and skin; Pat pieces dry on paper towels.

2. Place flour, spices and 1 teaspoon salt in a plastic food storage bag; shake to combine. Whisk egg with milk and juice in a shallow dish.

3. Dip chicken in egg mixture, then into flour mixture to coat; shake off excess. Place on prepared tray. Bake for 30-35 minutes, turning over halfway through cooking. untill tender and golden.

 

Serve with Easy Salsa

1 punnet grape tomatoes, halved lengthwise

1 lebanese cucumber, halved, seeded, diced

1/4 small onion, finely diced

1/4 cup chopped parsley or coriander

1 tablespoon red or white wine vingegar

Pinch sugar.

 

Combined all ingredients; season to taste with salt and pepper.

: Recipes+ Issue 12 september/october 2006

Pink Grapefruit, Bean and Cashew Salad with Lime Dressing

Heading off to Melbourne for a Ange's Birthday Party and called before leaving, this is her please bring this recipe with you post.....
One I made when she last visited here.....sorry no pictures maybe after we make it Melbourne.

Another family favourite Recipe by Bill Granger from Everyday

Serves 4

Ingredients

• 1 large ruby grapefruit
• 400G green beens, topped but not tailed
• 3 tablespoons cashew nuts
• Large handful fresh corianer leaves
• 3 spring onions, sliced on the diagonal
• Lime Dressing - see below

Method

1. Peel the grapefruit by slicing off both ends. Stand the end of the fruit on a board and, following the curve of the grapefruit, slice off all the peel and pith with a sharp knife. Slice out segments of the grapefruit by cutting between the membrane.
2. Blanch the beans in boiling water for 1-2 minutes until just tender. Refresh in cold water.
3. Heat a frying pan over high heat and cook the cashews, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until lightly roasted. Roughly chop the nuts and set aside. Toss the grapefruit, beans, coriander and spring onions with the dressing. Arrange on a large serving plate and sprinkle with roasted cashews before serving.

Lime Dressing

• 30ml Fish Sauce
• 30ml Lime Juice
• 1 Tablespoon soft brown sugar
• 1 Small red chilli, finely chopped.

Stir together all the ingredients until the sugar has dissolved.

12 hour crop - Pumpkin Salad

Well this is my version of a couple of different salads that we love, and I have often served as accompnament to one of our BBQ'ed dinners.

Ingredients

• 1/3 pumpkin, peeled, deseeded, cut into small cubes.
• olive oil cooking spray
• 2 x Bags of spinach leaves or baby lettuce leaves or a mix of both.
• 1/2 cup pine nuts, toasted
• 1/2 cup shaved parmesan cheese
• 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar or in my case a big slurp

Method

Preheat oven to 230°C. Line a baking dish with baking paper. Place pumpkin in a single layer in baking dish. Spray with oil. Season with salt and pepper. Turn pumpkin. Repeat with oil and salt and pepper. Roast for 20 minutes, turning once, until tender. Set aside.

Place pine nuts on a lined bake tray and roast for 3 minutes or until golden ( and don't forget them)

Place spinach/lettuce mix, pumpkin, parmesan and pine nuts on a salad platter. Drizzle with the balsamic, toss gently to combine.
Serve with any cut of meat or even on its own.

Pete Evans' roast Pumpkin with bacon and Fetta

WOW - what a dinner, just divine....of course I did the Sonia twist it up, and put in some Sweet Potato, one because the kids aren't too fussed on pumpkin, two because i wanted to cook an impossible pie tomorrow, so figured that I could add the extra roast veggies to it then... yes I will share that one tomorrow.

Now back to the recipe at hand.

Serves 8 . Prep and Cook time 1 hour 15 minutes

WHAT YOU WILL NEED

• 1.5kg piece Queensland blue or jarrahdale pumpkin
• 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
• 3 cloves garlic, bruised (yep had to add more but that's just me and a passion for roast garlic)
• 1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes
• 1 teaspoon ground coriander
• 1/3 cup raisins {only had sultanas on hand}
• 1/4 cup red wine vinegar
• 2 small red onions, cut into thin wedges
• 4 rashers bacon, sliced thinly
• 200g fetta cheese
• 2 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
• 1/2 cup flat -leaf parsley leaves {none on hand but coriander was and it worked}

Method

1. Preheat oven to 180 Celsius
2. Remove seeds from pumpkin, then chop unpeeled pumpkin coarsely, or cut into wedges. In a large shallow baking dish lined with baking paper, {nope don't need to well the pot scrubber works} combine pumpkin with oil, garlic, chilli, coriander and freshly ground black pepper. Roast for 30 minutes, turning pumpkin once during cooking.
3. Combine raisins and vinegar in a bowl. Stand for 30 minutes.
4. Add onion and bacon to pumpkin, roast a further 10 minutes. Crumble fetta over the pumpkin; roast for a another 10 minutes.
5. Remove baking dish from oven; cool 10 minutes. Combine oil with raisin mixture; drizzle over the pumpkin mixture with parsley.

I purchased a butterflied piece of lamb and seasoned with salt and pepper {OK well hubby did this bit} and seared it on the BBQ, then popped into the oven and glazed with a little home made mint sauce and had it roasting in the oven the whole time the veggies were cooking and served them both together...it was just DELICIOUS...

Let me know if you like it if you try it - I love comments on my dishes ....