Tag: salad

Surowka with Asian Influences

food, recipes

This salad looks exquisite, the combination of colours – white, orange, purple and pink where the beetroot juice runs – are unusal, flower-like and mesmerising. No photo for you here though – you will just have to make it and see!

(this recipe serves 3-4 as a large side dish)

Ingredients

1/4 large white cabbage, shredded
2 med-large carrots, peeled and grated
1/2 large beetroot (raw), peeled and grated

(For dressing)
3 tbsp peanut oil
2 tbsp/ freshly juiced orange (half a small one)
dash of lemon juice (exclude if orange is very acidic)
1 tbsp very finely chopped fresh ginger
2-3 drops sesame seed oil
2-3 drops tamari

(To garnish)
1 tbsp each of sesame, sunflower and pumpkin seeds, toasted
1 orange, peeled and broken into segments (which you could peel aswell if you have time on your hands!)

Method – it’s obvious but here it is anyway…

I find grate-ing the carrot and beetroot in a food processor gives the best result in terms of texture/thickness – but grating by hand will do if its all you have. Toss the vegetables together in a large bowl. Whisk all the dressing indredients together then stir into salad. Throw in the toasted seeds and mix again. Serve, decorated with a few whole or half segments of orange. Enjoy!

Surówka (winter vegetable salad)

food, hackney, recipes

Surówka
(pronounced su-roof-ka)

Surowka (winter salad)

A photo of this salad done without the celeriac.

Okay so there is no hard and fast recipe to this, you just learn to use what you have got and vary it according to mood. My favourite variation follows, its great for colour to brighten up a dark wintery day and tastes delicious and very moreish.

Ingredients

1/2 red cabbage
3-4 carrots
1 small celeriac
handful (total) of seeds/nuts eg sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, sesame seeds, cashew nuts
fresh parsley (if you have some)

For dressing:

a lemon
olive oil
honey
grainy mustard
salt and pepper

Method

Finely slice the red cabbage (i don’t recommend using a food processor as it shreds the cabbage too fine) and peel and then julienne/grate the carrots and celeriac (food processor comes in handy here!). Mix all together in a large bowl.

Make up a dressing to your taste, lemon juice is particularly good here but otherwise its variable. I do 1/3 lemon juice to 2/3 oil (total half filling a small jar), a 1/2 tsp each of honey and mustard and then season it.

Toast the seeds/nuts in a small frying pan until they are lightly browned and make popping sounds. Do watch these as the cook, if you try and do something else you risk forgetting and letting them burn – believe me as one who has tried!

Now just throw it all together – toss the dressing in, stir in some roughly chopped parsley and sprinkle with the toasted seeds.

This salad can last a couple days – i find its really nice to take for lunch alongside a sandwich. I would say if you don’t polish it off in your first sitting then enjoy it in the next day or so while its still fresh and crisp.