Summer Salad

Well, we had a momentary flash of summer weather which has unfortunately since been drowned out. Nevertheless the summer always makes me feel like creating different salads- they're fresh, flavourful and leave me with a summery light feeling πŸ™‚
This recipe is a twist on several  BBC Good Food ones- can you tell I love their website?! I used to get the magazine too for several years, and still have a stack on the bookshelf which I turn to for inspiration sometimes. They always have the most beautiful photographs of their food!
I may not have re-created that here, but I had fun taking close up shots of diced vegetables with my new camera...

So without further ado I give you...

Sweet potato, courgette and feta couscous salad!

You will need (serves two):
Half large sweet potato
1 courgette
1 pack feta
Some green leaves- I used watercress and sweet gem lettuce
100g couscous
Olive oil
Lemon juice
Seasoning- basil, oregano, salt+pepper

1. Dice the sweet potato (skin on) and put on a baking tray. Drizzle with olive oil and season with herbs and salt and pepper. Mix to ensure thoroughly coated. Then place in a preheated oven (200degreesC) for 20-25minutes, depending on the size of your chunks!

2. Meanwhile cut the courgette in half and slice thinly. I used a mandolin to get (relatively) even slices.

I've never used raw courgette in a salad before but it tasted wonderfully fresh, and gave a nice crunch to the salad.

3. Arrange the courgette slices on your bed of leaves.

4. Measure out the required amount of couscous and add water (cook according to packet instructions).

5. Dice your feta into cubes. Since this serves two and it's just me at the moment, I put half the feta in a tub for the next day!

Then I sprinkled the rest of the feta with some herbs for added flavour!

6. Finally when the sweet potato is cooked, assemble your masterpiece!

Again I kept back some of the sweet potato for the following day...

Verdict- a quick and tasty salad, with Mediterranean flavours but some winter comfort from the sweet potato. Much needed with all this rain!

Do you have any favourite salad recipes? Or ingredients that I should try in my salad next time?

Beki x

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