… this no cake eating lark is hard but i’m trying my best to ignore the cravings and make some wonderfully tasty and colourful dishes reasoning that the more colourful the plate the sweeter it looks but i’m barely kidding myself so I don’t expect any of you out there to take any of this too seriously and with messages from the government continuing to insist we eat more fruit and vegetables (why is it never more cake?) we all ought to be piling on the salads rather than the pounds…
… my dear friend Kavey ran a little questionnaire on her blog last week asking people if they were regular eaters of ready-meals, you must pop over and have a read because some of the answers are fascinating… there’s no judging going on, it’s not mumsnet but it made me think about our own eating habits and the fact that whilst there’s no doubt we eat a lot of food, if we’re not eating out we tend to stick to salads in the evenings and this can become a little dull. This roast tomato salad is a refreshing change from the run of the mill but is still very simple to knock together, you can roast the tomatoes in advance and the juice from the tomatoes roasting with the olive oil and balsamic make an instant dressing…
the good people at maldon are running a little social media competition called #flavoursofspring encouraging people to use their delightful products and get creative with fresh ingredients… the comeptition actually ends on Monday and i’ve been so busy I almost didn’t have time to enter but when I threw this salad together I grabbed by box of maldon smoked sea salt flakes and thre a pinch or two into the tomatoes as they were roasting and i’m so glad I did… the smokiness is quite subtle but it adds something entirely different to the salad, which i’ve made many times before, and it’s lovely to discover that adding just a pinch of something to a dish can change it so deliciously…
2 long vines of cherry or baby tomatoes
olive oil
balsamic vinegar
maldon smoked sea salt flakes
2 stalks of fresh rosemary
a selection of salad leaves – i used a mixed bag of baby leaves and some red cos
a handful of pumpkin seeds
100g soft goats cheese or cream cheese
1 kiwi fruit – peeled and sliced
1 half a fennel bulb – thinly sliced
place the tomatoes and rosemary into an oven-proof dish, drizzle liberally with olive oil and balsamic vinegar and sprinkle with a pinch of salt – roast on 160C for 1 hour then either set aside to cool and use or let it cool and pop it in the fridge
cut and wash your salad and place it in a bowl with the pumpkin seeds, sliced fennel and kiwi fruit then crumble the goats cheese on top
pull the tomatoes off the vine and pop them over the salad, then drizzle with the still warm juices and then mix the whole lot together letting the warm juices melt the goats cheese and crush the tomatoes
serve immediately
you still have time to enter the maldon #flavoursofspring competition this weekend. All you have to do is blog about your favourite flavour of spring and then tweet the recipe using the #flavoursofspring hashtag… the winning entry will be picked by those clever folk at maldon and the winner will get a weekend for two at River Cottage!
eat and of course, enjoy!
I enjoyed reading all the answers to Kavey's survey too. This salad sounds delicious and it's something I'd definitely love to eat.
This sounds utterly delicious! I love roasted tomatoes and goat's cheese and everything else in this salad (haven't tried the smoked sea salt yet – I hope to though!)
Goodness, this has made my mouth water. I would never have thought about the kiwi fruit but will definitely give it a go. This is my kind of food.
I would not have thought that kiwi fruit would go well with this salad – but then you never really know until you've tried something.
this looks like my kind of salad – I love fennel!
Mmm … this is such an interesting salad, Dom! Kiwi and fennel matched with sweet roasted tomatoes! My tastebuds are def intrigued! And the discussion on that survey of Kavey's was really interesting! We all have strategies for getting food on the table … I was interested to see what some folks consider as processed vs. straight ingredients. And the concept of prepared vs. take-away vs. ready made confused me. I think I'm some somewhere in the middle ….never buy take-away, do buy some prepared ingredients (like fresh pasta, stock pastes,etc.), can't remember the last time I had fast food. Food is getting expensive and I really feel I can cook far better and more nutritious meals cheaper than I can get them ready made or in a restaurant.
Two BEAUTIFUL recipes and stunning photos Dom and the sort of food that I love too! Karen
It might be simple to put together but this would definitely keep me happy. I'm especially grateful for your efforts in restoring my faith in the humble kiwi fruit. I lived through the nouvelle cuisine “revolution” of 30 odd years ago in which a lot of chefs thought that all you needed to do to be on trend was add a kiwi fruit to any dish. The seventh duck with kiwi fruit dish pushed me over the edge and kiwi fruit causes cold sweats unless they're in a fruit bowl. I need to get over this.
I'm not sure about kiwifruit in salad either – reminds me of my childhood, when there was such a glut here (and lots of kiwifruit growers going bankrupt) that grocers used to have signs up advertising they were selling buckets of kiwifruit for $1 – the money was for the bucket and the kiwifruit was free.
But I LOVE the look of those tomatoes, and even though I know I should be using Marlborough Flaky Salt (the local one), you can't beat Maldon. That smoky one is awesome!
Anyway, lovely salad!