With warm sunny days now here and more to come it is essential and comforting for the cook to have some ideas for quick, easy, no-fuss meals.
This salad fits the bill perfectly. A glorious mix of colours, flavours and textures make this such a knockout — juicy grapes, crunchy cucumber, cashews, sunflower seeds and salad greens, all tossed with a pomegranate molasses dressing.
This makes a light and luscious meal by itself and is utterly delicious as a side dish — quite superb with spicy paprika chicken — chicken strips cooked quickly to succulent tenderness in a mildly spiced sauce are so easy and delicious that this is sure to become a family favourite. Do not overcook the chicken or it will be dry and tasteless. The marinade for the chicken adds flavour and helps to keep the delicate chicken meat moist.
Grape, cucumber and cashew salad
Serves 4 as a side dish
Ingredients
200g red grapes, halved if large
200g (three quarters) of a telegraph cucumber, peeled, seeded, diced
¼ cup spring onions or chives, finely chopped
60g sunflower seeds
80g raw cashew nuts
2 large handfuls of salad greens, torn into bite-sized pieces
Dressing
3 Tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
1 Tbsp white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp pomegranate molasses
½ tsp salt
Combine the grapes, cucumber, spring onions or chives in a bowl.
Toast sunflower seeds in a dry frypan over low heat for 4-5 minutes, stirring frequently as they scorch very easily. Transfer to a plate to cool.
Toast the cashews separately in the same pan for 5-6 minutes until golden. Cool and roughly chop.
Just prior to serving the salad, add the sunflower seeds, cashews, grapes and the salad greens to the bowl.
In a small screw-top jar shake together the dressing ingredients and pour over the salad.
Toss gently and tip on to a serving platter.
Garnish with fresh herb leaves.
Paprika chicken
Serves 4
Ingredients
1 Tbsp olive oil
1 Tbsp crushed garlic
2 Tbsp white wine vinegar
2 Tbsp soy sauce
2 Tbsp Thai sweet chilli sauce
1 Tbsp paprika
½ tsp ground cinnamon
650g boneless, skinless chicken breast cut into 1cm wide strips
cooking oil spray
chopped fresh herbs to garnish
Method
Combine oil, garlic, vinegar, soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, paprika and cinnamon in a bowl.
Add the chicken strips. Stir to coat well.
Marinate for at least 15 minutes or for up to 12 hours covered in the fridge.
Heat a frypan to medium-high. Lightly spray the base of the pan with cooking oil and add the chicken strips and marinade.
stir-fry for 4-5 minutes until chicken is tender and cooked through.
Serve with the salad.
