Serves : 3 for a meal
Ingredients for the Salad:
- Apple -1, chopped
- Carrots – 2 small ones, grated
- Cucumbers – 2, chopped
- White radish – 1 (just the white portion), grated
- Red bell pepper – 1, chopped
- Green pepper – 1, chopped
- Sweet corn kernels – ½ cup boiled
- Lettuce leaves – as many as you like
- Toasted pumpkin seeds – ¼ cup
- Boneless chicken thighs – 2, marinated in salt pepper a garlic flake, lime
- Fresh Parsley chopped – 1 tablespoon
- Fresh Mint leaves – 5, torn
- Fresh Basil leaves – a few
Ingredients for the Salad Dressing: Makes about 400 millilitres of dressing
- A glass jar with a screw-top lid (Any old jam/pickle glass jar with a tight lid works well)
- Olive oil – 200 millilitres
- Honey – ¼ cup
- Vinegar – 80 millilitres
- Garlic flakes – 5, crushed
- *Dried Dill – ¼ teaspoon
- *Dried Basil – 1 teaspoon
- *Dried Thyme – ½ teaspoon
- Mustard sauce – 2 tablespoons
- Sliced Jalapeno – 4 slices, chopped tiny
- Crushed pepper – ¼ teaspoon
- Salt – 1 teaspoon
Method:
- Toss the marinated chicken thighs into a pan, put the lid on and cook until the chicken is well-done and just moist.
- To the glass jar add all the salad dressing ingredients, close the lid tight and shake the bottle well. Taste the dressing for sweetness, sourness and salt. Set aside.
- Cool the chicken and refrigerate until cold and then slice into bite-size pieces.
- To a large enough bowl add all the veggies and the prepared chicken.
- Pour over as much dressing as required to coat all the veggies and chicken.
- Toss well and serve.
Notes:
- Make sure you have some space left at the top of the glass jar, after adding all the dressing ingredients, so that you can shake the jar well enough to mix it all up. Using a jar makes storing away the rest of the dressing easier.
- *Crush the dried herbs slightly in the palm of your hand before adding them to the glass jar.
- This is a basic salad dressing. As you make your salad, you can add a variety of other ingredients such as a tablespoon of Mayonnaise/ a tablespoon of Hung curd/ a teaspoon of fresh mint paste/ a tablespoon or two of cream.
- Make the dressing a little saltier than required. The flavours will balance out once you pour it over your salad.
- Ensure that the veggies are devoid of any residual water after washing them. That way the dressing will stick well to the salad.
- Substitutes/ alternatives for:
- Apple – Pear, pineapple, grapes
- Olive oil – Avocado or Grapeseed oil.
- Pumpkin seeds – toasted sunflower seeds, flax seeds, toasted almond slivers, walnuts, croutons.
- Vinegar – lemon juice.
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