Bull’s blood salad with halloumi

Simone (junglefrog) — Fri, 07 Oct 2011 07:00:15 +0000

Salad with bull's blood leaves and halloumi

As I have told you before I have a hard time resisting ingredients which I have not seen before and when they have an imaginative name like ‘Bull’s Blood’… well, there is only one course of action possible as far as I’m concerned and that is to put it in my basket! I was really shopping for pecans to bring with me to Germany as I spend a weekend there with Meeta from the blog ” What’s for Lunch Honey?” and we had a great time! (more on that possibly later) but finding those pecans was just an excuse to go to a shop at my favorite store in Amsterdam. I could really spend hours there just roaming around and the only downside is that I always (always!) come back with things I don’t really need. I do use them so rest assured that nothing will go to waste but still… it’s a struggle sometimes to have everything finished before the expiration date..lol..

Delicious dressing from I like that

The ingredients that went into this salad certainly had no risk of getting old or stale as they were all eaten outside on a gloriously sunny day the same day I bought them. Ofcourse there was my favorite cheese to use in salads which is halloumi. You can see some more halloumi related salads on my blog here, here and here. Key to this salad was another new find and that is a dressing by a company called ‘I like that“. Now to me, with a name like that it just had to be a winner. They have interesting flavor combinations and the company is originally located in South Africa. This dressing is so much more then the boring ones you can find in our regular supermarket. The flavors were intense and the smoked sundried tomatoes really shone through. I paired my bull’s blood leaves (which is essentially just a variety of beetroot leaves) with the crispy bits of fried halloumi, lovely juicy tiny tomberries and on top of that I quickly caramelized some toasted almond slivers with honey and put them on top of the salad.

Absolutely delicious and this will be a winner for me, if I could only find those beetroot leaves in my regular store! I could ofcourse grow them myself. Now there’s a thought for next year!

Salad with bull’s blood leaves, halloumi and tomberries

Print recipe

Serves:	1
Prep time:	10 minutes
Cook time:	5 minutes
Total time:	15 minutes
Meal type:	Salad
Region:	Worldwide

Ingredients

2 handfuls bull's blood salad leaves (this is a type of leave from beetroot. Usually from seed)
100g halloumi
50g tomberries (very small yellow variety of tomatoes. Use any other tomato you want!)
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon rock chives (the baby chives...)
2 tablespoons almond slivers
dressing of your choice (I used dressing from 'I like that' (smoked sundried tomato vinaigrette))

Directions


Cut slices from the halloumi and cut those again in cubes. I like them medium sized but you can always make them as large or as big as you want. Heat a small layer of sunflower oil in a frying pan and once the oil is hot, quickly fry the halloumi until golden brown. Be careful as it does tend to spatter. Leave to drain on paper towels

Wash the salad leaves and put them on a plate with the tomberries.

Heat a frying pan and toast the almonds quickly until golden. Add a tablespoon of honey and stir making sure all almonds are covered. keep an eye on it, as it will burn easily.

Once the halloumi is slightly cooled, distribute over the salad leaves, add the almonds and the rock chives on top. Sprinkle some of the dressing on top of the salad and enjoy!

Note

I totally loved the combination of flavors in this recipe. The crunch of the halloumi with the sweetness of the almonds works really well and the dressing from "I like that", was just brilliant here. If you're making your own dressing I would go with similar flavors but really it's pretty versatile.

Citrus salad: Hot weather!

Simone (junglefrog) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 14:36:47 +0000

Citrus salad

On the fear of sounding ridiculous… it’s soo warm right now…:) Haha… well it is warm and lovely right now so I am not complaining! Honestly! As you can tell the weather is going a bit up and down right now but sofar the predictions are that it is going to be sunny for easter weekend! Fingers crossed!! I always think it is amazing how all those bare trees can go from nothing to green in just a matter of days when it is the right temperature. It’s almost the same with blossom trees; one moment there is nothing and the next; bloomheaven all over! We have this amazing endless row of appleblossom trees on one of the roads leading to the highway and it amazes me everytime I pass it. Soooo beautiful! People stop and take photos of it. It only lasts for a very short period of time unfortunately but still… it’s a delight everytime!

With spring in my mind I figured I would make another springy salad for lunch yesterday and it was nice but not something I will make again. I don’t mind a little bit of work for a lunchsalad but this was just too much hassle with having to peel the orange and the grapefruit that went in it. I should have shot it on a white plate too instead of on a yellow one, but too late to change that now. It was also on the too light side. I felt hungry like 10 minutes after finishing the salad so you will definitely need a sandwich or something more substantial to go with this salad. It will be perfect and fresh though for a hot day.

Beetroot

I also had another shoot for the citycouncil and found another great store with things you cannot find in the rest of this town, so I’m quite pleased with their selection of vegetables and other delicacies. They even have vanilla beans, which is something you cannot find around here normally. I was especially pleased to find beetroot. In june of last year I saw this fabulous recipe at Sabra’s blog, Cookbook Catchall and I desperately wanted to make it but I could not find beetroot anywhere!! I searched the entire town and the next, but the only thing I could find was the cooked and ready variety which was not what I wanted. So imagine my surprise when I saw these lovely beetroots lying in the store when I walked in. Guess what I will be making soon?

Here is the recipe for the Citrus salad if you want to give it a try:

CITRUS SALAD WITH SUGARSNAPS (serves 4)

100 gr of sugarsnaps

2 oranges

2 small grapefruit

walnuts

arugula

red salad

1 cucumber

for the dressing:

2 tbsp walnut oil

2 tbsp of tarragon vinegar

1 tbsp of olive oil

1 teaspoon of coarse mustard

1 teaspoon of sweet chili sauce

Put the sugarsnaps in an empty bowl or pan and pour boiling water over it and let sit for about 2 minutes. Drain and rinse the sugarsnaps with cold water. Peel the orange and grapefruit and remove all white skins. Chop the walnuts into small chunks. Make small slices or cubes of the cucumber and put all salad ingredients together in a large bowl.

Make the dressing by putting the ingredients in a pot and shake well. Toss with the salad and serve.

Junglefrog Cooking » beetroot