MORE PLEASE - BIG SALADS

Potato, Pickle and Crispy Feta Salad, Peppered Trout, Rice and Charred Pea Salad, and Layered Chicken Salad with Bagel Chips, Apple, Fennel and Yogurt

Hello sweet More Please subscribers!! Thanks as always for being here and for supporting, it’s such a joy to create recipes for you.

I am here this week with an episode all about Big Salads ie. the perpetual hosts secret weapon.

Earlier this month in the episode all about People Dropping In, I shared the recipe for Lazy Caesar which was the first thing I cooked for a guest in my new home. It’s a great example of a Big Salad and is partly responsible for inspiring this episode. The other thing responsible is an excellent new cook book by Tom Jackson titled Cool Pasta. Tom has taken the tired and ometimes underwhelming concept of pasta salad and created a book filled with utterly delicious recipes with clever twists. I honestly used to be a huge pasta salad sceptic but this book has completely changed my mind. Not only that, it reminded me why sometimes an assembly job of lots of different elements on one big plate is such a nice way of feeding people. This is the philosophy of the Big Salad - instead of multiple dishes, you make one big thing, usually ambient thing, that contains many exciting different things. Typically, some if not all of these things can be made well ahead of time, so you can give yourself the gift of bringing together a very impressive dish without much stress.

I had such a lovely time creating these 3 Big Salads, because there’s something almost alchemical about them. There are few “non-negotiables” when it comes to Big Salad creation, and these won’t always be the same person to person. For me, a Big Salad always needs the following -

• something crunchy

• something fatty or creamy

• something sharp

• something sweet

• something herbal

So let me walk you through where I landed. Firstly a glow up for the potato salad - it’s my Potato, Pickle and Crispy Feta Salad. Potatoes, watercress and sweet, sharp pickles are tossed in a rich pickle juice Ranch dressing and finished with everyone’s favourite salad topper - deep fried cheese.

Then I’ve finally penned a recipe for a salad that I crave so often. It’s poke-esque in structure but very far from the real thing. My Peppered Trout, Rice and Charred Pea Salad combines some of my favourite bites; perfectly cooked and spiced oily fish, slightly sweet sushi rice, a punchy mayo and crispy veg, in this case sugar snap peas that you dry fry for a smokey char.

And lastly it is my platonic ideal of a Chicken Salad. Layers of garlicky yoghurt, finely sliced apple and fennel in tonnes of fresh lime, crunchy bagel chips and crispy skinned chicken thighs. It is an utterly delicious and summery affair that delivers on so many levels.

Let me know how you get on with these, I can’t wait for you to try them!