KEY POINTS:
Right. I'm done with all this festive indulgence. At first it was carefree, novel and naughty but nice, like staying up late and sleeping until midday. As a friend of mine put it the other day, when you can have steak every day, you start to crave a leafy salad.
Actually, he was talking about women (he should be so lucky), but his succinct theory can also be taken literally. So enough, please! Let me pass on the puddings, pies and pavs. Hold the hamburgers, hollandaise and hydrogenation. Bring on fresh-as-a-daisy, lovely, light food that dances over the taste buds and makes you sit up straight (which, incidentally, instantly takes several pounds off you). And if our waistlines benefit from this resolution of freshness, well, surely that's a happy side-effect.
So, what to eat? Certainly a salad is never a bad idea when the sun is shining and time spent in the kitchen is best kept to a minimum. Though a word on salads: don't be fooled by them. Beware the showy salad bar masquerading as the healthy alternative to the eggs benedict you momentarily considered and honourably dismissed. Some salads are nice-but-naughty as they're coated with an over-generous layer of oil (sometimes to make up for their bland or not-so-fresh components). Though, unlike a cream cake, with the faux-salad you don't even benefit from the deliciously naughty indulgence of the experience because you're too busy feeling virtuous in your belief that you've done good.
So let us consider the happy marriage of health and flavour which can sit contentedly on a plate for the rest of its time together. Unless you're in close consultation with the chef, often the only way to achieve this joyous union is to create it yourself. So gather up this season's greens, pinks, oranges and reds in their abundance and get creative in the kitchen.
If buying ready-made, go for salads which look like you'd expect them to. This might be stating the obvious but if you can see the carrot, capsicum and broccoli, then they really are there, aren't they? If they're merely mentioned in the salad name or description but somehow not visible to the naked eye, chances are they're either smothered in an oily dressing, scantly in attendance or absent.
At the cafe where I work, we'll be kicking off the new year with a revamped salad menu.
We'll still do our rocket and walnut pesto pasta - because it tastes good - but maybe we'll lose some oil and throw in some extra veggies to beef it up, if you'll pardon the expression.
We'll play around with yoghurt dressings which will cut back on a couple of cupfuls of mayo. But only if they still hit the spot, because there's really no point in cutting both fat and flavour; you'll just start craving steak again.
SMOKED SALMON AND HONEYED PEACHES
Choose really juicy peaches for this, get them on to grill while you throw the rest of the salad together and the whole thing will be ready in less than 10 minutes.
Serves 4
2 peaches, stoned and sliced
2 tbsp honey
4 tbsp Greek-style yoghurt
Zest and juice of 1 lime
2 x 200g pack wood-roasted salmon (I used Regal)
Large handful of Cos lettuce
Small handful mint, roughly chopped
1. Preheat the grill. Put the peaches on to a greased baking sheet or grill-pan, drizzle over the honey and grill for 5-10 minutes until caramelised and softened.
2. Meanwhile, put the yoghurt into a large bowl with the lime zest and juice.
3. Mix together and season with freshly ground black pepper. Add the salmon and stir with a fork to break up, then add the peaches, Cos and mint.
4. Serve with breadsticks or crusty bread.
- Detours, HoS