Wednesday, March 31, 2010

Sensational Salads


For my recent Italian dinner party, I made two sensational salads - Bill Granger's Rocket & Pumpkin Salad, pictured above, and Curtis Stone's Tomato Salad with Basil, Buffalo Mozzarella and Balsamic.


Unfortunately, one of my guests was not a salad man, but I enjoyed the salads. It was a nice change from roast veges to go with my porchetta.

To make the rocket & pumpkin salad (from the May 2007 edition of Delicious magazine), you will need:

500g peeled pumpkin cut into 1.5cm cubes
1 thinly sliced red onion
1 teaspoon dried chilli flakes (I left these out)
2 tablespoons olive oil

sea salt (to taste)
100g rocket leaves


Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.

Put all ingredients other than the rocket into a baking dish, toss to combine, and bake for 45 minutes or until the pumpkin is cooked through.

Put the rocket into a salad dish, add the pumpkin mixture, and toss to combine. It's that simple!



To make the tomato, basil, mozzarella and balsamic salad (from the May 2008 edition of Delicious magazine), you will need:

1kg mixed tomatoes (no mixing at Woolies - just tomatoes)
1/2 cup basil leaves
6 teaspoons balsamic vinegar
6 teaspoons extra virgin olive oil
2 balls buffalo mozzarella or 4 bocconcini

(Note - I only made a half batch, so you'll get way more salad than in my photo)

Cut the tomatoes into 2-3cm pieces and place in a salad bowl. Add the basil and half of the balsamic vinegar and olive oil. Season the mixture with salt and pepper and toss to coat the tomatoes.

Scatter over the torn mozzarella, and drizzle with the remaining olive oil and balsamic vinegar. Enjoy!


16 comments:

Jennifer said...

Both salads look absolutely fabulous!!!

Valen said...

What tasty looking salads!

Anonymous said...

They both sound wonderful. I'm a salad girl!

Brenda said...

I love pumpkin in my salads. But both of these look delicious and I can't choose my favourite hahaa!

Lorraine @ Not Quite Nigella said...

How could anyone not love that salads! :o

aforkfulofspaghetti said...

There are salads, and then there are SALADS. Anyone not wanting either of these is a fool. Lovely, lovely flavours, and so darn good.

Unknown said...

Dont you just love bill granger??? I love it when he is on tv, everything he does looks so beautiful. The salads look awesome daaaaaahling.
*kisses* HH

jesse said...

I absolutely love the colours on that salad! How pretty!

TLC said...

a good salad is hard to come by - but those both sound lovely!

Leslie said...

These both look delicious! Sometimes guys aren't salad lovers but these are so tempting!

Trissa said...

The pumpkin and rocket salad looks very similar to something my Aunt makes but she adds pine nuts as well. I know this is absolutely delicious.

Anonymous said...

Nothing beats seasonal salads. So fresh and healthy!

The Blonde Duck said...

You make veggies look tasty!

veron said...

great looking salads here!

Nutmeg Nanny said...

What delicious looking salads!

rental mobil di surabaya said...

Love it!!! thanks
yummy