Roasted zucchini and tomato warm salad

Continuing the previous post and the vinaigrette recipe, today when miss the Summer time sun the most I present you appetizer/salad in a Southern style. I know that the taste of Winter tomatoes is far from perfection, so you can skip them and serve just the zucchini! I decided to use cherry tomatoes and I must tell you they taste almost like ‘real’ season ones.
Warm vegetables with a delicious garlic vinaigrette are simply delicious!

Ingredients
4 small zucchinis
7 oz (200 g) cherry tomatoes
3 tbsp oil
vinaigrette (3 tbsp oil, 1 tbsp vinegar, 1 garlic clove,½ teaspoon honey
salt, pepper)
salt, pepper


Method
Place the tomatoes on a baking tray, drizzle with 1 tbsp oil, season with salt and pepper. Roast for about 30 min at 360F/ 180 oC until soft and juicy.
Cut zucchinis long ways in thin slices. Drizzle with oil and fry on a grill type frying pan until dark stripes will show on each slice. Still warm zucchini transfer on a big plate, drizzle with the vinaigrette, add roasted tomatoes. Serve slightly warm.

Crispy Winter veggies salad

For this Sunday dinner salad I got inspired by the culinary workshops, I wasn’t expecting anything special, just few carrots and a sauce, well I was so wrong! Vegetables made this method are aromatic and crispy, you can prepare them a day earlier and they won’t loose their freshness- it is a great idea for a work lunch salad!

Ingredients
3 big carrots
2 big parsley roots
1 leek
6 tbsp olive oil
2 tbsp wine vinegar
1 teaspoon honey
salt, pepper

Method
Wash all the vegetables, crosswise cut in half, then cut all the vegetables julienne ( about 2-3 mm thick). In a jar mix all the sauce ingredients, shake. Add the sauce to the vegetables and mix until well covered with the sauce and slightly soft. Serve i.e. with chopped parsley. I sprinkled mine salad with black sesame seeds.
If you don’t have a time to wait, cut vegetables put for a minute into the boiling water next for another minute into a freezing water and than mix with the sauce. The veggies will be good in a half an hour.

Plums once again. This time savour.

This salad is one of my favourites. All Summer I wait until ripe, velvet plums will be on the trees, and my dad will make a great salad. The ingredients may look at the first sight a little bit eccentric, but final effect it just brilliant and delicious!

Ingredients
2 red peppers
17 oz (500 g) plums
2 small onions
lemon juice
pinch salt, sugar
few tbsp vinaigrette made with lemon juice or wine vinegar ( proportions 3:1), it’s also good with balsamic vinegar

Method
Thin slice peppers and plums ( both those ingredients should be the same amount). Slice onion and in a separate bowl season with sugar, lemon juice, so it will get soft. All ingredients with a sauce combine in a bowl.

Potato and beetroots salad

My favourite vegetable?

Beetroot.

I’m not kidding! I love its taste and colour. A pink addition to the diner – there is nothing better for me. And borsch I could drink every day.

For a change in a salad with potatoes and sour apple- to break the taste.

Ingredients ( like in every salad you can change the proportions, adding or deducting – depends on your taste and what you have in your fridge)
18 oz (500 g) jacket potatoes, peeled
10 oz (300 g) beetroots (cooked in skins, peeled)
1 can 9 oz (250 g) white beans
2 sour pickles
½ onion
1 apple
2 tbsp mayonnaise
½ teaspoon mustard
1 teaspoon vinegar
1 teaspoon chopped dill
salt, pepper


Method
Cold potatoes and beetroots dice. Mix with strain beans, diced apples, sour pickles and onion. Season to taste. Sprinkle with dill.

Toasts (perfect with salad)

My favourite part of the salad?

Toast!

You have to admit, that it is a nice feeling when between bites of salad you eat something crunchy. Garlic aroma, note of parsley and good olive. Yes, please.

Ingredients
baguette, don’t have to be very fresh
3 tbsp olive
1 garlic clove
1 tbsp finely chopped parsley
salt, pepper

Method
Slice baguette (slices should be about 5 mm /0,2 in/ in thickness). Each slice rub with garlic clove, place on the lined baking tray lined. In a bowl mix olive with parsley, using a brush put the mixture on each slice of baguette. Season with salt and pepper, bake at 160 oC (320 F) until golden.