This is probably the best salad I have ever made. It’s so fruity, so crunchy, sweet, salty, soft and fragrant all at the same time that I’ve ditched any thoughts of modesty and am just going to shout it out there. Here’s how it happened. I was honoured to win the first ever Cookthink Root Source challenge way back in January with my recipe for Celeriac Soup with Parsley Oil and Lancashire Cheese Toasts. Just thinking about that recipe takes me right back to winter which is apparently where we are headed this weekend in the UK (again). As a prize for winning the challenge, I have received a cook book (and a Cookthink T-shirt!) called Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes: Recipes from a Modern Kitchen Garden by Jeanne Kelley.

The book focuses on simple, fresh flavours. The recipes certainly aren’t challenging but are more akin to the way we like to eat everyday, uncomplicated and delicious, celebrating seasonal ingredients. I wanted to feature a recipe from the book and was drawn to these ‘Salty-Sweet-Spicy Almonds’ but, as per usual, I couldn’t just make a recipe and leave it alone, the reading of the recipe started my mind wandering in different directions which is the last thing I need right now with exams looming (any information in might squeeze information out, ok?). I wanted to incorporate the almonds into a dish rather than eating them as a cocktail snack as Jeanne suggests. So, while the sun persists, so do I with this jewel flecked farro salad. This is perfect for a barbecue side dish and most definitely for the lunchbox, which is partly what I had in mind. Salads like these keep well for a few days in the fridge and are bursting with contrasting flavours meaning your tastbuds don’t get tired.

I’ve realised that it is the contrasts in textures and flavours that are the making of a good dish. A perfect illustation of this was bestowed upon myself and Chris last night when we ate dinner at The Bermondsey Kitchen. We had both heard good things about it and so finally decided to visit. The place itself is informal, bright and airy and the service excellent. Overall, the food was good, not amazing or anything, but good. I had a charcuterie plate to start which I was relieved to find was not a towering pile of meat (sure to clog up your tubes and appetite in the space of 10 minutes) and included lomo, a Spanish cured pork fillet I’ve never eaten before but will now be searching out – somthing tells me Brindisa will have it! Chris ordered rilletes (no surprise to me nor to his family if they read this). They were excellent, really quite coarse in texture (pork) with big flavour. My main dish was delicious, plaice with blood orange butter and baby fennel. That blood orange butter was genius although I was sceptical about the seasonality issue with the oranges until Chris pointed out that the odd few still keep turning up in the veg box. “The seasons aren’t set in stone!”

The big disappointment was Chris’s main, roast pork belly with mashed potato and courgettes. The portion was massive which I feel is absolutely not the way to go with pork belly. The best belly we ever ate was in Franklin’s, our favourite local restaurant, perfectly crispy and just the right size. The Bermondsey version was vulgar and the fat was, well, not that crispy. The mashed potato was bland and so were the courgettes, he didn’t even eat more than half. The point I’ve been rambling towards all this time is that the dish didn’t contain any contrasts. These are all middle of the road flavours, there is nothing dancing around your mouth, cutting through, playing off, enhancing. Some herbs, citrus, hell anything would have improved things, it was like it came from a different chef.

Anyway, back to the salad.There is a lot of confusion over the whole spelt/farro issue – are they the same or aren’t they? Kalyn wrote about this recently and concluded that they are not. I commented on Kalyn’s post saying that a spelt seller at The Real Food Festival had told me they are one and the same but apparently this is a common misconception. I am going with Kalyn on this one as I know she’s done the research. Whatever it is, I dressed it with an orange and raspberry vinegar dressing that is so fruity it just lifts the whole dish and brings all the flavours to life. It is one of my best dressings ever. The nuts work brilliantly too, I’m so glad I tried them this way. They are fragrant with fennel seeds and hot with crushed chillies. The sticky sugar coating gives them a fantastic crunch. Tangy feta, sweet almonds, salty olives, fruity dressing. Cookthink – in sending me the book, you set me on the path to this salad and for that, I thank you deeply.

Jewelled Farro Salad with Almonds and Orange-Raspberry Vinegar Dressing

250g farro
6 spring onions, sliced
40g dried cranberries, soaked in water for 30-60 minutes
10-15 kalamata olives, sliced in half
2 pomegranates, seeds removed (make sure there is no pith)
200g feta cheese
1 small bunch mint, leaves picked and finely sliced
1 small bunch flat leaf parsley, leaves picked and left whole
15-20 almonds (see below)
1 quantity orange-raspberry vinegar dressing (below)

- Cook the farro according to packet instructions, drain and set aside to cool.
- Make the almonds and dressing (below).
- In a large bowl, mix the farro, onions, cranberries, pomegranate seeds and crumble in most of the feta.
- Add the almonds and the dressing and stir to combine. Add the herbs and mix again.
- Transfer to a serving plate and crumble over the remaining feta to serve.

Salty-Sweet-Spicy Almonds (from Blue Eggs and Yellow Tomatoes by Jeanne Kelley)
This is the full recipe. I only used about 15-20 almonds in the salad

1/3 cup sugar
1 tablespoon fennel seeds
2 teaspoons salt
2 teaspoons crushed red pepper flakes
2 cups raw almonds

Preheat the oven to 325F (170C/Gas3)
Line a baking sheet with foil and spray with non-stick cooking spray (I just wiped a film of oil over it)

- Mix sugar, fennel seeds, salt and red pepper flakes in a bowl. Add the almonds and 2 tablespoons water and stir to coat everything. Pour onto the foil and spread out in one layer.
- Bake until the sugar melts (about 5 minutes), then stir and return to the oven for 17 minutes more, stirring every now and again until golden brown.
- Remove from oven and separate with a fork. Leave to cool.

Orange-Raspberry Vinegar Dressing

Juice of one orange
1 tablespoon raspberry vinegar
1/2 to 1 clove garlic (depending on taste)
Salt and pepper
Extra virgin olive oil

- Crush the garlic in a pestle and mortar with the salt.
- Add some black pepper, the orange juice and vinegar and mix well.
- Add a couple of tablespoons olive oil (or to taste) and whisk to emulsify.

Edit: This is an entry for Margot’s Wholesome Lunchbox Event over at Coffee and Vanilla

So, as I mentioned in a precious post, I’m on a diet. As I also said, I don’t actually believe in dieting so I will just be watching the fat and sugar intake a bit more than usual for a couple of weeks. I wouldn’t want to do anything too drastic! So that is how I came to think about chicken for lean protein and grain salad for lunch boxes and side dishes. I’ve wanted to make this dukkah (pronounced doo-kah, an Egyptian mix) for around a year now and I only just got around to it. I’m so glad I did as it was stunning and I can’t wait to try it with goujons of fish, which I suspect may be even better. If you don’t want to shallow fry them (as you may be on a diet!), you can spray them with oil (I use a gardening spray, a new one…) to get a fine even mist and then bake them until golden instead – much healthier. I used smoked Maldon sea salt in this dukkah mix, which I picked up in my local health food shop today and the smoky flavour just came through but next time I will add a bit more. You could also get away with a little more fennel, particularly if you try fish. I served the goujons with some natural yoghurt mixed with mint and lemon thyme.

My local health food store is SMBS Foods in East Dulwich. It’s brilliant but it’s also extremely small and busy, especially on a Saturday afternoon. On my visit, the queue stretched right around the tiny shop and I picked up 3 extra items on my way to the checkout. ‘It’s all a ploy to get you to buy more’, according to the woman in front of me. I couldn’t resist buying this muesli bread (pictured below), which is a rye bread with added hazelnuts, oats and raisins. It’s actually really good toasted for breakfast, slightly sweet and crunchy. I also bought a packet of spelt spaghetti and some tofu. I’ve never tried tofu and I’m quite obviously not a vegetarian but after watching a programme about people with high amounts of soya products in their diet that are all over 100 years old I thought I’d give it a try!

The grilled chicken I made earlier in the week when I remembered an unopened bag of Ras El Hanout (a Moroccan spice blend meaning ‘head of the shop’) in the cupboard that I’ve been meaning to use up. I came up with a really simple recipe as I was very tired and not up to much chopping and the like. It’s a mix of the Ras El Hanout, a touch of smoked paprika for depth, a little crushed garlic and some yoghurt. I just mixed everything together and marinated the chicken in it for as long as I could bear to wait and then threaded it onto skewers before grilling until charred. It was delicious, succulent and juicy inside and charred and flavour-packed on the outside.

We ate the grilled chicken with some roasted buckwheat salad that I made earlier in the week. This was less successful than the chicken recipes. In fact, I’m not even sure that I like roasted buckwheat or Kasha. As Heidi suggests, it might be better to get the un-roasted version and toast it yourself so that you can control the intensity of the flavour. This ready-roasted stuff is way too strong. The ingredients that I had in the fridge led me to making some sort of tabbouleh with it but the grain was totally unsuitable and just overpowered everything. In the end though, mixed with the chicken and a generous helping of yoghurt and chilli, it was delicious.

Dukkah Crusted Chicken (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts, sliced into bite size pieces

100g hazelnuts
70g sesame seeds
3 tablespoons coriander seeds
1 tablespoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon black peppercorns
1 teaspoon smoked (or regular) sea salt
1 teaspoon fennel seeds
1 egg, beaten
- Lightly toast the nuts (in a dry, heavy based pan) and then grind in a pestle and mortar or blender until chopped (not too fine, you don’t want a paste)
- Lightly toast the sesame seeds and add to the nuts
- Lightly toast the fennel, cumin and coriander seeds and the crush and crack lightly, add to the nuts
- Grind the peppercorns and add to the nut mix along with the salt
- Dip the chicken pieces first into the egg and then press them into the dukkah until thoroughly coated
- Shallow fry the pieces until crispy and golden brown on both sides (you can also bake the chicken if you spritz it lightly with oil first).

Ras El Hanout Chicken Skewers (serves 2)

2 chicken breasts, cut into bite size pieces
2 cloves garlic, crushed
3 tablespoons ras el hanout
1 teaspoon smoked paprika
250ml natural yoghurt
Fresh coriander and lemon wedges, to serve.

- Mix all the ingredients together in a bowl and leave to marinate for as long as possible (ideally overnight). If you want to use any lemon in the marinade, put this in half an hour before you are ready to cook.
- Thread onto skewers and grill until lightly charred on all sides.
- Serve with lemon wedges and lots of chopped fresh coriander.

I also sprinkled some finely chopped spring onions on top of the goujons. Yum.

When I’m walking around Borough Market, I enter this sort of dream-like state. It’s as if I’m floating around, too stunned and excited by what I see to utter even the most basic pleasantries. It was fortunate then, that my most recent visit to Borough was with my oldest and best friend, after our planned visit to the design museum. For that is one of the best things about knowing someone for so long isn’t it? You don’t need to say anything just for the sake of it, you can just get on with enjoying yourself and each others company.

We stopped for paella with chorizo (below) before heading in, which is when I spotted people carrying Borough Market shopping bags. Not plastic bags, but ethical bags* like the ones we are all supposed to be using now, except with Borough Market stamped on the front in bold green. Being the food geek that I am, I had to have one and so we tracked them down, hastily handing over 3 quid each for the pleasure. As I admired my bag I became aware of my friend frantically rummaging and squealing with excitement. Food! There was food inside! A selection of the traders had sacrificed some of their wares by way of advertising and inside we found, organic dry cured bacon, a walnut loaf from DeGustibus, an ‘ultra’ chocolate brownie, a bag of coconut ice from the award winning Burnt Sugar, a Bramley, an orange and finally, a bag of farro.

Now strangely, I’ve never got around to cooking with farro. My first instinct was to use it in an autumnal broth but I wanted something to see Chris and I through the week for lunch and so I came up with this salad instead. I added chickpeas to enhance the nutty flavour of the grain and threw in lots of Mediterranean flavours, along with some radishes for a Turkish twist. Everything then gets a good dousing in a dressing made with Rose Harissa. If you haven’t tried this special harissa, I urge you to do it. Belazu do cute little jars of the stuff. It will set you back about 3 quid, but it’s well worth it. So much more punch than a regular (shop bought) harissa, but then balanced by the delicate perfume of rose petals. The dressing is particularly good if you use the oil that the marinated tomatoes come packed in.

There is something so satisfying about making up a batch of a salad like this; wholegrain goodness mixed with all kinds of delicious morsels – varying textures and flavours with every bite. I must admit I also feel a slight smugness when I pack up those neat little lunchboxes and hand one to Chris with a piece of fruit, flashing my, ‘aren’t I an organised domestic goddess smile’ . In reality, it’s a case of a bit of chopping (very therapeutic), a bit of mixing (couldn’t be easier) and then a lot of chucking everything into the same bowl (an idiot could do it – and it’s healthy!). Minimum effort for maximum reward.

I’ve been writing this post sat on the floor in an empty room, not because I’m masochistic, but because we are moving into a new flat this weekend. All our belongings are in storage and we are kipping in our friends’ living room for the next few days. As a consequence, I don’t expect to have the internet for a few weeks and so no posting for me. I will however, be like a whirling dervish in my new kitchen, so it’s just a case of manically posting here when I return.

Farro Salad with Rose Harissa Dressing

Farro (I used the entire bag you see pictured. The original bag was cooked and eaten too quickly), cooked according to packet instructions. I have used various brands since and found they all take 20 minutes or so.
15 kalamata olives, pitted
10-15 marinated tomatoes packed in oil, roughly chopped (I used Sainsbury’s ‘sunblush’ tomatoes marinated in oregano and garlic).
A handful each of basil, mint and parsley, roughly chopped (this is just what I had in the fridge but basil and mint are fantastic together I think).
1 standard pack of feta, crumbled
6 spring onions, chopped
1 standard tin of chickpeas packed in water, drained.

For the dressing

Rose harissa (I used Belazu)
Olive oil from the marinated tomatoes – about 4 tablespoons. (if you are using regular olive oil, add a crushed clove of garlic to the dressing).
Juice of ½-1 whole lemon.

- Cook the farro according to packet instructions.
- Meanwhile, chop everything, drain the chickpeas and add all the salad ingredients to a serving bowl.
- Make the dressing by stirring 1 ½ tablespoons of the harissa into the oil followed by a good squeeze of lemon juice.
- Allow the farro to cool slightly before mixing it with the other ingredients. It really makes a difference to add the dressing now while the farro is still warm.

* On the subject of bags, I’m so pleased that we are finally waking up to the fact that carrier bags are so unnecessary. I have been trying (not always successfully) to cut down on them for a couple of years now and it’s a relief that I no longer have to say, ‘no thanks, I don’t use them, we throw away 13 billion a year’ at the checkout. On reflection, I must have sounded like a self-righteous idiot but never mind. The advantage now is that shops are beginning to offer their own (ethical) shopping bags more readily. Forget Anya Hindmarch’s, ‘I’m not a plastic bag’, I’m talking about your local grocers, markets and the like. Of course, its symbiotic – you get a free bag and they get free advertising. Although I do try to avoid the supermarket, sometimes (quite often actually) it just isn’t possible and so I’d rather be carrying my groceries home in my trusty SMBS (health foods shop in East Dulwich) shopper than in a supermarket equivalent – aside from being bad for the environment, I don’t want to do them any favours.

The supermarkets are apparently now required to recycle their bags and as a consequence are making them thinner. I found this out first hand a few weeks back when I found myself with no option but to use a Sainsbury’s carrier. As I was leaving the store, I heard an almighty crack and felt a sharp pain in my foot. When I came to my senses I realised the bag had broken and my bottle of cider had smashed on the floor. As I was waiting for a replacement, I chatted to the lady at the customer services desk, ‘happens all the time now’ she said, ‘several times a week – they’re making them thinner’. Now of course, I can’t vouch for the truth of this, but it all seems a bit silly to me. Let’s get rid of them and be done with it. We’ll all get used to it in the end.