When my husband and I were in Melbourne for the Comedy Festival in 2008, I’d cook supper. As a lover of pasta, I’d normally do a real comfort food pasta dish. Once or twice we’d splash out and go and buy an awesome piece of steak. One of those thick, melt in the mouth, pieces of meat! To go alongside I made this fabulous salad. It’s really just a basic salad, it takes no skill whatsoever. We nicknamed it two-day salad because when the balsamic vinegar, oil and feta cheese combine over the other ingredients, it turns it this unappetising brown colour. It looks as if it has been sitting in the fridge for days! I always serve it with a large dollop of home-made hummus. Hell, could I BE any more middle class?
So here, darlings, is my two-day salad with home-made hummus. It’s utterly delish, even though it is just salad!
Serves 4 (as a side or large snack!)
For the salad…
1 small iceberg lettuce, sliced super thin
2 medium carrots, grated
1 punnet of cherry vine tomatoes or mini pomodoros, sliced in half
1 small cucumber, quartered and sliced
2 small apples, cored and chopped
1 pack of feta, cubed
a generous handful of toasted pine nuts
a large lug of both olive oil and balsamic vinegar
For the hummus…
1 can of chickpeas
3 tbsp of lemon juice (I like a super lemony hummus)
2 garlic cloves, crushed
1 tsp ground cumin
100ml tahini
4 tbsp water
3 tbsp olive oil
1 tsp paprika
Chop all the ingredients to a similar size. I like to cut them to a size that means I can eat them easily with a fork!
Combine everything well in a large bowl and leave to sit (out of the fridge) for at least half an hour for a really decent two-day look!
For the hummus, drain and rinse the chickpeas.
Pop the chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic, cumin, salt, tahini and water in a food processor and blend until smooth and creamy. Spoon it into a dish, adding more lemon, cumin, garlic or salt as you wish.
Serve the hummus (if you don’t have time to make your own, Sainsbury’s own is fine!) with the salad. I recommend adding a mouthwatering, medium rare, steak to this. Divine!
Enjoy.
Love Lili
Lili La Scala 