On the sixth day of Solstice my Thelma gave to me...

A recipe for a great summer salad! MKR over at My Kitchen Robot requested salads to trial and adapt to Thelma and here is my recipe. Pop over to her blog to see photos, the changes she made (including adapting it to quinoa so it was gluten-free!) and some great ideas for subbing mango for what's on hand and local! I've copied her adaptation method here though to show how you can take a recipe and Thelma-ise it.

My tastes like summer salad recipe would be great!

1 cup Israeli cous cous (or other small pasta)

1 cup good vegetable stock

1/2 cup water

300g-500g green salad leaves

100g goats cheese or feta

1 mango

1 small chicken breast

1 tablespoon spices such as chilli, cinnamon, coriander seed, cumin, salt and pepper

1 punnet cherry tomatoes, halved

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tablespoon olive oil

Mix spices together and rub on chicken. Let it sit for at least 10 minutes. Place stock in a saucepan and bring to simmer. Add cous cous and then the water - it should just cover the cous cous. Simmer covered for 10 minutes or until the cous cous is soft. Drain, reserving the stock. Toss the oil and lemon juice through the warm cous cous. Pan fry the chicken with a splash of oil and 1/2 cup of reserved stock, covered with a lid so it almost poaches. Remove from pan and leave to cool a little before shredding.

To assemble salad, cut up the mango and cheese then put the greens in a bowl, add the chicken and mango and tomatoes and cheese, then the cous cous. Toss gently to combine. A sprinkle of chilli is perfect on top if you want extra kick. 

To adapt to gluten free, sub cous cous for quinoa. Vegetarian - swap tofu for chicken. Dairy free - swap the cheese for avocado and/or toasted nuts (pine nuts, sliced almonds, cashews). Add fresh herbs to compliment. 

Serves 6 as a salad or 3-4 as a main.

Thelma adaptation from My Kitchen Robot

1. Add spices to TM bowl, toast on Varoma temperature at speed 1 for 5 minutes. Grind on speed 9 for 1 minute to turn the spices into powder. Coat the chicken breast in with the spice mix and a little olive oil and the. Put aside for 10 minutes.
2. Fill the bowl with water up to the 1 litre mark and add the stock concentrate. Add the chicken to to lower level of the Varoma steamer and spread the quinoa on the upper tray. Steam for 20-25 minutes, until both the chicken and quinoa are cooked.
3. While the chicken and quinoa are cooking, wash the salad leaves and tomatoes and slice the peaches.
4. Once cooked remove the chicken and allow to cool before slicing. Dress the quinoa with the lemon juice and olive oil while still warm. To assemble the salad, put the greens into a bowl, add the sliced peaches, tomatoes, chicken, quinoa then crumble the feta over the top. Toss gently to combine.
Serves 6 as a side salad or 3-4 as a main.

Forgive me, Thermocauldron Demonstrator, for I have sinned

This is a "guest post" from TheHusband.

Who confessed to me last night that he had gotten cocky with the instructions for making a beetroot salad.

And went 1 second over the recommendation. I wasn't home to discuss this at the time. 

And so instead, we ended up with beetroot mush. Which was tasty. And colourful and edible. It was just mushy.

He sent my friendly demonstrator a note to this effect as well.

When I told her today her suggestion was, of course, "Add a block of cream cheese and you'd have dip!". I'm not sure it would have suited the fish we ate with it though.

Salad days

While I mean it in the literal sense of the word, salad days means something completely different:

"Salad days" is an idiomatic  expression, referring to a youthful time, accompanied by the inexperience, enthusiasm, idealism, innocence, or indiscretion that one associates with a young person. More modern use, especially in the United States, refers to a person's heyday when somebody was at the peak of his/her abilities—not necessarily in that person's youth.

I mean it literally - it's been hot and strangely muggy here in Adelaide this week, and now it's damp, a little rainy and cool again. I did take the opportunity this morning to make guacemole from the EDC and then the beetroot salad which is (a) a mainstay of an demo and (b) absofreakingdelicious and (c) perfect for using some of my FoodConnect box which was positively flush with beetroot this week!

Beetroot is so amazing and fabulous to eat raw but there are so few easy ways to do so. Beetroot is a pain to work with but the Thermomix makes short work of it. Perhaps that's the best thing about the Thermomix - it makes food that is otherwise inaccessible much more accessible!