This Thai influenced salad is a vegetarian variation on yam dtaeng gwa, Cucumber and Prawn salad.

Lisa’s Kitchen and Tinned Tomatoes host a monthly blogging event called No Croutons Required where a vegetarian salad or soup is submitted. My oldest child Leah is a vegetarian so I am always on the lookout for vegetarian recipes and variations for her.

I really needed some salads this week after making all those Lamingtons and this seemed like the perfect opportunity to create something. This month the theme for No Croutons Required is Thai, one of my absolute favourite cuisines with it’s exotic flavours and bright colours.

I’m lucky enough to have in my cookbook library the most beautiful book, Thai food by David Thompson. It’s touted as the most comprehensive book on Thai recipes and culinary skills. It’s even covered in gorgeous Thai pink silk. The recipes are amazing and I just love to cook with it and from it. Some of the ingredients can be hard to source, but many are readily available and he offers substitutions for some of the more difficult to find items.

This is an adaptation of one of his recipes.

Cucumber & Papaya Thai Salad

Salad

• 1/2 a small papaya chopped
• 3/4  of a small cucumber thinly sliced on the diagonal
• 3 red shallots sliced
• handful of mixed coriander and mint leaves

Dressing

• one garlic clove peeled
• good pinch of salt
• pinch of white sugar
• 2 birds eye chillies
• 1 1/2 Tblspns lime juice
• 2 tspns water

In a mortar and pestle add and crush to a smooth paste in the following order, salt, garlic, chillies, sugar, lime juice and water.

If you are scared of chillies you could reduce the amount in the dressing to your taste and de-seed them.

If you have access to Mangosteens I would definitely add some segments to this. Unfortunately there are none available here.

The dressing should be sour, hot and salty

Toss the salad ingredients and dress.

This salad was so elegant and simple. Fresh and cleansing to the palate. I’m making it again tomorrow I enjoyed it so much.

At the supermarket today almost right next to each other I saw these beautiful little heirloom tomatoes and in the cheese refrigerator close by, some crumbled feta cheese. Greek Salad ….they whispered to me.

I just could not resist the tomatoes; they looked like little baby watermelon. They were only the size of cherry tomatoes.

Greek salad has been one of my favourite summer salads for a long time. Those of us in the southern hemisphere are in the middle of summer at the moment, so there is fresh produce in abundance in the stores and salads are just right for the hot days.

I was also sure my regular readers would be thinking our family lives on a diet of sugar and butter in various forms, so I thought I’d best give you a slightly different dish to create a more balanced impression.

This is my very simple version of a nice chunky Greek salad. So easy it’s hardly even a recipe!

Greek Salad

• 2 large red tomatoes
• 1 small punnet of cherry or small heirloom tomatoes
• 1 cucumber
• 1 cup of Kalamata olives
• 1 cup of crumbled Feta Cheese
• 1 red onion chopped

Simple Lemon dressing

• Juice of one lemon
• 1/4 cup good Olive oil
• pinch of sugar
• salt and pepper

Chop all your ingredients, I like to leave mine chunky and pit the olives. Crumble your feta cheese over.

Place your dressing ingredients in a jar together, screw on the lid, give it a good shake and pour over your salad - gently toss to coat and serve.  I like lemon so I tend to use a lot, feel free to reduce the lemon juice to roughly 2-3 Tblspns if you prefer.

This salad does not benefit from sitting around. Many people like to add some salad greens as well, red pepper is another common addition.

Kahl Orexh! (that’s Greek for “have a nice meal” - or perhaps “where is my toothbrush?” - I’m not really sure)

If you live in the southern hemisphere like me, then this salad is a perfect Christmas addition to a summer Christmas meal. All those beautiful red and green colours all wrapped up in a tasty salad. It’s made with Israeli couscous - which is quite large compared to Moroccan style couscous.

The first time I ate Israeli couscous I wasn’t that sure that I liked it. We had it hot as a side dish. I am still not that sure that I like it that much hot, but I simply love it in salads. This salad is so simple and adaptable you will want to keep a package of Israeli couscous in your pantry just for this. You will usually find it in the international section at the supermarket or speciality food stores.

Plus you get the bonus of having everyone look at it slightly sideways and asking .. what is that? Kit likes to tell people they are frog eggs, I tend to tell people it’s a kind of tiny pasta since I’m sensible and a bit boring like that. Of course once they have had that first mouthful they are hooked.

Lemon and Paprika Couscous Salad

• 1 250 gram package of Israeli couscous (8.8 oz I think)
• 1  lemon - juiced.
• 1/4 cup of good olive oil
• 6 inch piece of cucumber diced
• 1 red pepper (capsicum) diced
• 1 green onion finely chopped
• 1 garlic clove finely crushed ( optional)
• 1 tspn of smoked paprika
• 2 Tblspns of fresh flat leaf parsley ( if you do not have fresh - just omit)
• Salt and pepper to taste

Cook your couscous as for pasta in boiling water. Test after about 7 minutes, it should still be slightly al dente. Squeeze one of the grains between your fingers to test if done. Drain in a colander and run cold water over the top to stop the cooking and then set aside while you get on with the rest of the salad.

Place all your other ingredients except the Paprika in a medium sized bowl and add your couscous on the top, stir to mix well then sprinkle your paprika on top and stir again - taste for seasoning.

I often find myself putting in a little more lemon - but then again I like lemon. Chill for at least 30 minutes before serving to give the flavours a chance to meld.

Two other nice optional additions to the salad are corn kernels and chopped olives.

Just a quick post today, since I have to finish up the Christmas shopping, two more days till Santa comes down the chimney. Tomorrow I think I might make the big guy in the red suit some biscochitos - I happen to know on good authority that he’s pretty fond of them.

Well not exactly green eggs and ham. But how about purple potatoes? And by purple I mean PURPLE potatoes. These are Urenika, they’re becoming more commonly seen in farmers markets, and as additions to cafe and restaurant meals. The larger ones are floury in texture and the smaller ones waxy. The first time I saw them I was in a little cafe in Oamaru, I noticed a small purple addition to my salad and eyed it very suspiciously.

No one is really sure of the origins, some saying they arrived in New Zealand with the Peruvian whalers (hence the alternative name of Peruperu), Maori recounting they have always been here and that they have been cultivating them for over 1000 years.

They have the same antioxidant properties as blueberries, and are much richer in antioxidants than the ordinary white potato.

Urenika are the most beautiful shade of violet when cooked.

Black and slightly scary looking when they are uncooked, they really look like something that you should not be eating at all. I suspect that the first person that tried one of these did not expect to survive the night. In fact, they are also known as Tutai Kuri, which means err… dog poo, to be polite. Now that I have completely put you off trying them I will assure you that they are in fact quite tasty, and have I mentioned.. they are purple?

Urenika Salad

• 1/4 cup of gerkins (pickles) finely chopped
• 3-4 tspns capers
• 1/4 cup of red onion or green onions finely chopped
• chives - snipped
• 1/2 cup of celery chopped
• 2-3  cups of cooked white new potatoes, chopped
• 2 -3 cups of cooked Urenika cooled and chopped.
• 2-3 large tblspns real mayonaise or aoli

Assemble your ingredients and stir together gently. Urenika are best steamed and peeled after steaming, they are almost impossible to peel when they are raw without sacrificing a lot of the flesh. Choose smaller waxy ones for the salad.

The colours are amazing!

Chill in the fridge to let the flavours meld and combine. This is wonderful served with fresh asparagus and soft boiled free range eggs. If you like, you can hard boil the eggs and include them in the salad.

Salty, sweet, creamy and crunchy - what more could you want.