Summer is upon us. Well, the odd day or two if you live in Scotland like I do. There’s no better way to celebrate a sunny day than packing a picnic, head out to your local park (or back garden!) and stuff your faces in the sunshine. I was recently tasked with a mission to create a food concoction using a 1L Kilner jar as part of thinkmoney’s Jam J-art campaign, so I decided upon a colourful summer salad that you can easily transport to your favourite picnic destination.
The salad includes several elements which are layered in a certain way to ensure the contents do not get soggy. No one likes a soggy bottom, am I right? The way I go about it is….
- Add Sauce
- Add Hard Vegetables
- Add Protein
- Add Salad Leaves
- Add Pasta/Noodles
- Add Basil
- Add Nuts
You can really choose what you want to go into your salad but below is the recipe to my tried and tested favourite. This time around, I’ve been trying to get my head around a spiralizer, so I exchanged my usual fusilli pasta with a mix of carrot, courgette and cucumber noodles. I have to admit that it was a great change, added a perfect crunch to the salad and was refreshing. Definitely going to be sustituting my pasta for vegetable noodles in salads for this summer. My fussy little nephew even loved his “oodles”.
- 3 large garlic cloves, crushed
- 1 tin chopped tomatoes
- 1 tsp tomato puree
- Handful vine tomatoes
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp paprika
- 1 red chilli, chopped
- 1 tsp mixed herbs
- 2 bay leaves
- 1 carrot
- 1/2 cucumber
- 2 courgettes
- Handful of mangetout
- Handful of rocket leaves
- Handful of fresh basil
- Leftover roast chicken (marinated in lemon juice, black pepper, oregano and olive oil)
- 1/2 ball of mozzarella, diced
- 1 tsp mixed nuts (pine nuts, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds)
- Heat oil in large saucepan over medium heat.
- Add garlic and cook until garlic is browned, being careful not to burn.
- Add in chopped tomatoes and tomato puree, bring to a boil. add some vine tomatoes.
- Reduce heat to low, stir in bay leaves, red chilli, paprika, mixed herbs, sugar, salt and black pepper. Cook uncovered for about 20 minutes, stirring occasionally.
- Create noodles using a spiralizer
- Squeeze noodles to get rid of any excess liquid
- Add Sauce, which has been cooled
- Add Mangetout
- Add Chicken and Mozzarella
- Add Rocket
- Add Noodles
- Add Basil
- Add Nuts
1 Comment
last year's girl
June 24, 2015 at 11:11 amWell this looks… good enough to eat. It’s true!
Plus I love me some Kilner jars, dirty big hipster that I am.
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