Recipe: Winter salad with roast garlic dressing

My stomach (or my mouth really) can be a contrary thing, always craving what is not in the house or is out of season, so it was no surprise really that in the middle of a cold winter day, my contrary stomach decided it really wanted salad. Not really winter food but much as I love soup, stews, curries and other comfort food, there comes a time when you just need a salad. I'm pretty sure the last couple of weeks of indulgent eating may have had something to do with the need for greens.

However, winter does not make for the best salad ingredients and despite the salad craving I still wanted something warm, so a roast veggie salad seemed the way to go and I topped it with some chicken for a protein hit but this would be equally good minus the chicken as a side for a steak or even a roast.

A warm salad is a great dinner. Warming, filling but healthy. And while winter may not be a great time for salad veggies like tomato, many lettuces like it. My backyard rocket patch has gone crazy allowing for a great green base.

When thinking of a dressing to accompany the richness of all those roast veggies, a garlic vinaigrette came to mind but to complement the roast taste, I roasted the garlic. The soft, delicately roasted garlic pretty much dissolves when you shake it like crazy with the rest of your dressing ingredients. Just be sure to not add any leftover chunks of garlic to the final salad.

This amount makes a great dinner for 2, or a side for 4.

Winter salad with roast garlic dressing
2 potatoes peeled and chopped into 3cm cubes
2 carrots chopped in half lengthwise, then into 2cm lengths
1 medium eggplant chopped into 4cm cubes
1/4 pumpkin chopped into cubes
1 capsicum cut into 3cm squares
1 leek thinly sliced
a chicken breast
a couple of handfuls of rocket leaves
2 garlic cloves unpeeled
olive oil
maldon (or other flaky) sea salt
oregano
paprika
dried garlic
red wine vinegar
maple syrup

Preheat your oven with a non-stick baking tray in it to 200 degrees.

In a large bowl, toss the potatoes, carrots, eggplant, pumpkin and capsicum with enough olive oil to lightly cover the veggies, a couple of pinches of salt, a few shakes of oregano and dried garlic. Pour onto the pre-heated tray and arrange in a single layer.

Bake for 30-40 minutes till everything is golden and well roasted.

Meanwhile, gently fry the leek in a little olive oil until caramalised and golden.

Butterfly the chicken breast so it is an even thickness. Dust with paprika, dried garlic and oregano then fry in a little olive oil until both sides are golden brown and the chicken is cooked through.

To make the dressing, pop the whole unpeeled garlic cloves on top of the other veg and roast for 10-15 minutes until just starting to ooze. Take them out of the oven and squeeze the garlic out of their cases into a jar. Top with 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil, 1-2 tablespoons red wine vinegar and a teaspoon of maple syrup. Screw the top of the jar tightly and shake like crazy. The garlic should disintegrate and make a lovely creamy dressing.

To serve, in a large bowl add the rocket, roast vegetables straight from the oven, leek and enough dressing to lightly dress the salad. Toss together, then top with slices of the chicken breast.

Cucamelons

Every year I grow a bountiful supply of tomatoes in our veggie patch. Home grown tomatoes are wonderful things, so bursting with flavour and perfect for the tiny space we have available. I've experimented with many other crops over the years with mixed success, but I may have just found something to compete with the tomatoes - cucamelons.

Cucamelons, also called Mexican Sour Cucumbers, are tiny bite sized cucumbers. They are the size of a grape tomato, look like a miniature watermelon and taste just like a cucumber. I'm still getting used to the experience of eating them. They don't have the explosion of flavour that you get from a grape tomato but have more crunch than a piece of cucumber. And they are prolific! I can see why there are so many recipes for pickling them, I would say that in the next couple of weeks we are going to be inundated.

I grew them from direct sown seeds (bought from the amazing Diggers Club) so they have taken a while to get to fruiting stage. Next year I think I will grow them as seedlings so that I can get them in the ground earlier, but now that they have hit the fruiting point, I'm thinking of all the possibilities of what I can do with the fruit.

I find it really exciting to be growing a vegetable that I've never seen before, only read about and having had a browse of the Diggers Club website I realise there are so many options out there. I can imagine that at some point in the future when we have a decent sized back yard I will grow all sorts of amazing things.

Do you grow your own veggies? And have you discovered any unusual and exciting crops along the way.

Home Grown

I have a fairly tiny garden but I do make it work hard.  All year I grow a range of herbs - rosemary, bay, oregano, thyme and parsley.  I have a lemon tree and in summer I add basil, tomatoes and other veggies to the mix.  This year we are growing zucchinis and eggplant.

We have harvested kilos of tomatoes and quite a few zucchini but our first eggplant is still growing.  Every year at about this time as I admire my bountiful supply of tomatoes and other veggies I'm filled with pride and a short lived sense that I could be self sufficient - short lived because I quickly realise that growing a few plants is not equivellent to growing all you need to live on.

I dream of one day having a huge vegetable patch with a rotating planting system, growing a significant portion of our food each year.  I would really love to grow my own fruit, I know from experience it tastes so much better than what you can buy in the shops.  But in the meantime I continue to feel very proud of the delicious food my tiny garden produces.

Do you grow vegetables? And does ti give you a somewhat overwhelming sense of pride when you get to eat what you have grown?

Vegetables

Let me begin by saying I am a meat eater.  I like my steak on the rare spectrum, my lamb and duck pink.  I have eaten all sorts of animals from your standard cows, sheep and chicken to llama, goat, deer and rat.  I enjoy meat.

However, I do love my veggies too and one thing I always notice when I travel is that I just don't eat as many vegetables as normal.  In fact sometimes it feels almost like I've become a cake eating carnivore with the meals you get at restaurants and the kinds of "holiday" food I indulge in. 

Having access to markets like these in Paris did mean we ate some veggies.

Because we stayed in apartments with kitchens for much of our trip, S and I did do some self catering and as a result, this trip was probably less veggie deprived that usual, but I was still craving them by the time we got home.  So much so that even in our terribly tired jet lagged state, the first thing we did after getting home, having a shower and putting a load of washing on, was jump in the car and head to the fresh food markets.  We bought a heap of fresh fruit and veggies and have been enjoying them ever since.

And I attempted to eat my body weight in fresh berries.

S made a huge pot of veggie soup which has been our dinner pretty much ever since we got home and I made a giant batch of veggie pasta to have for lunches. Today as I ate my ratatouille pasta (which was significantly more vegetable than pasta) I reflected on just how delicious veggies are and how good they make me feel.

And so I add vegetables to one of the things I love coming home to!

What "home" foods do you miss when you are on holiday?  And do you have a favourite vegetable?