A Cool Green Salad

I struggle with Iceberg lettuce. It goes nicely with chicken or bacon, but on it’s own all there is crunch and then dissapointment. I think the problem is that I have tried to gee up the emptyness of the iceberg with strong flavours when what it needs is quiet companions that will not overpower its subtle green bitterness. And that is what I did today - kept it simple and came up with a lovely accompanyment to a tart made with puff pastry topped with brie, sweet bell peppers and sprinkled chives.

- Tear up a bowlful of iceberg leaves.
- Add in say, half a cucumber siced into chunks.
- Finally thinly slice three or four spring onions and add them to the bowl.
- Stir it all together and top with a dressing made from three or four tablespoonfuls of greek yoghurt, the juice of a lemon and some coursely ground black pepper.


I have noticed lately that whereas I make soups from flavours, salads for me are very much a visual thing first closely followed by texture. Hence I see my salads as colour combinations and rarely mix a large number of ingredients preferring to make several salads instead and can end up with a whole colour wheel on the table if I am not careful.

Potato, Cumin, Yoghurt and Mint soup

Always the bridesmaid, potato rarely gets the starring role in a soup. This is a bit unfair because it has a lovely texture, smooth and creamy with a stickiness about it that is as comforting as porridge is on a cold day. And a potato is a true friend as well, no matter what dire straights I have found myself in there has always been a potato or two in the larder somewhere to make sure I am fed. So today I celebrate the potato with a quite intensly savoury soup that is at the same time tangy as well.

- Gently fry an onion and a clove of garlic (peeled and roughly chopped) in some oil and butter until softly translucent.
- Add in a teaspoon of ground Cunin seeds, a teaspoon of whole cumin seeds, half a teaspoon of ground Blackpepper and half a teaspoon of Turmuric for it's earthiness.
- Stir the spices around a bit for a couple of minutes then add in two or three potatoes peeled and roughly diced, stir around again to mix everything together.
- Pour in a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock, bring to a gentle boil and leave until the potatoes are cooked.
- Blend or liquidise the soup and return to the now washed pan.
- Stir in a tablespoon of creamy greek yoghurt and a small palmfull of sliced mint leaves along with some salt and pepper if required.
- Reheat gently, don't let it boil or the yoghurt will separate into little white bits.
- Serve with another dollop of yoghurt and some more chopped mint.



Student food really but there is nothing wrong with that. Jamie Oliver would be proud of me I think . . . .

Carrot, Mint and Yoghurt soup

Sunday 1.20pm

I love carrots, I always have. They are so easy going and adaptable. Put them with just about any other other ingredient to make all sorts of dishes from salads and soups (of course) to a pudding. And they are available all year round, in our house even if the fridge is pretty well bare there is usually a carrot in there somewhere. But more than anything else I think it is the colour that I like. Orange. So orange that even in the depths of a dark Scottish winter you cannot help but be cheered up by a bowl of carrot soup. My favourite colour is green, the colour of nature, healing and growth, but I often sway to orange, the colour of enthusiasim, happiness and creativity (and independance I think). My youngest's favourite colour is orange and he is all of those things.

In a soup carrot has a lovely texture, not smooth but slightly rough, sort of porridgy perhaps. This soup is oniony with a hint of mint in the background from cooking the mint in from the beginning. You could get a fresher flavour by cooking the soup and adding the mint leaves just before serving.

- Slowly cook an onion and a couple of cloves of garlic, peeled and sliced, in enough olive oil to cover the bottom of your saucepan.
- Leave to cook slowly while you peel and chop the carrots, go out to the garden for some mint, slice the mint, and then what else? Oh yes wash up all the dishes left by the sink by my two teenagers who it seems don't "do" washing up. They'll learn ;-)
- Once the onions are translucent and turning gently honey coloured add in a couple of large carrots peeled and roughly chopped and a small handfull of mint leaves sliced up, I used about twelve.
- Bring up the heat and a.dd in a pint and a quarter of vegetable stock.
- Turn the heat down to a gentle boil and cook until the carrots are just soft enough to squash against the side of the pan with a wooden spoon.
- Allow to cool for a minute or two and then blend until smoothish.
- Pour back into the now washed out pan, adding a dessertspoonful of greek yoghurt and a little salt if you think it needs it.
- Reheat gently, trying not to let it boil in case the yoghurt curdles. I struggle with this, but always eat it anyway curdled or not !

Serve with another big splodge of creamy greek yoghurt.