THREE SALADS, NO WAITING.

There’s so such thing as ‘just a salad’. Not around here, anyway.

One hint of spring sunshine, and I’m busting out the salad spinner and turning salad into a meal. I’m very into the concept of ‘sit-down salads’ - not that anyone in their right mind would eat a salad standing up, but the term gives it weight, and gravitas. It’s salad as dinner. Salad as sustenance. Salad as something you don’t have to cook.

FIRST UP, THE GRECOISE SALAD.

This is what happens when you want a Greek salad and your partner wants Nicoise. You realise that all he really wants is anchovies, and so you do a corporate merger of the two that surprises you both by being inappropriately delicious.

Couple of baby cos lettuces

Good tuna in oil

Couple of soft/hard-boiled eggs, cut into quarters

4 anchovy fillets

Handful of black olives

The best tomatoes currently available, randomly sliced

Slab of feta

Dried oregano

Dressing: e/v olive oil, red wine vinegar or apple cider vinegar, Dijon mustard, sea salt and pepper

The trick to this salad is to not toss it. Instead, cut the baby cos in half lengthwise, do your best to wash it and shake out the water, then trim the root end so you have lots of untethered leaves, and plonk them on the plate. That’s your salad bed. 

Drizzle with half your dressing, then pile the tuna, quartered eggs, tomatoes, anchovies, olives and feta and oregano on top.

Then give the plate a shake to help it all settle down, and serve.

# Make lots of dressing, it soaks it up like a sponge.

# Yes, you can add boiled potatoes, crisp green beans, avocado, guindilla pickled chillies, capers, red capsicum, little pink radishes, a bowl of garlicky aioli; of course you can.

NEXT, A PROPER SIT-DOWN SALAD: WILD RICE, SALMON, LEMON, DILL.

Wild rice and nutty brown rice in a lemony dill dressing entwined with gently cooked salmon. Pouring a glass of wine as we speak.

50 g wild rice

150 g brown rice

200 g fresh NZ salmon fillet

1 tbsp olive oil

2 tbsp sunflower seeds

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 tbsp almonds, skin-on

2 tbsp pistachios, shelled

2 tbsp dill sprigs

Sea salt and black pepper

Dressing:

3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

2 tbsp lemon juice

1 tbsp honey

1 tsp ground cumin

Cook the wild rice in a large pot of simmering salted water for 10 minutes, then add the brown rice and cook for a further 40 minutes or until just tender. Drain and spread out on a tray to help it cool.

Toast the sunflower, pumpkin seeds, almonds and pistachios in a hot, dry pan for a minute or two.

Tip out the seeds and nuts to cool, then add a slug of olive oil and cook the salmon skin-side down for 4 minutes, then turn and cook for 2 minutes, leaving it pink inside.

Whisk the dressing together in a big bowl. Toss in the cooled rice, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, almonds, pistachios and dill, season generously with sea salt and pepper, and lightly toss.

Using two forks, pull the salmon apart into rough shreds and serve on top or lightly fold through, and scatter with extra dill.

# Skip the wild rice and just go for the brown, but if you do have it at the back of the cupboard, wild rice is quite the ride, almost squeaky to the bite.

# Shower with a spoonful of dukkah Egyptian spice mix for even more of a nutty crunch.

THIRD SALAD ON THE STARTING BLOCKS: CHICKEN, COCONUT AND LIME

400 ml coconut milk

3 tbsp fish sauce

2 chicken breasts or 4 thighs

250 g green beans or asparagus

2 small Lebanese cucumbers

2 tsp sugar

Half tsp salt

2 tbsp lime or lemon juice

Good handful coriander sprigs

Good handful Asian basil leaves

Good handful mint leaves

Half green chilli, julienned

2 tbsp salted peanuts, chopped

Lime or lemon wedges for serving

In a pan, combine coconut milk with 1 tbsp fish sauce and salt.

Add the chicken, and add enough cold water to just cover the chicken.

Bring to the boil and simmer gently for 10 minutes, turning the chicken once or twice, then turn off the heat, cover and leave to steep for 30 minutes until cooked through. (Check).

Cook the green beans in simmering salted water for 4 minutes then drain.

Shave the cucumbers lengthwise with a vegetable peeler.

Drain the chicken, saving the broth, remove any skin, and slice or shred.

To make the dressing, whisk 4 tbsp of the coconut broth with the remaining 2 tbsp fish sauce, sugar, salt and lime juice, and adjust to your own taste – it should be zingy.

Toss the green beans, cucumber, coriander and basil in half the dressing and arrange on four plates. Add the chicken, spoon over remaining dressing, scatter with peanuts and chilli and serve with lime or lemon.

# Swap chicken breast for thighs, swap green beans for asparagus, add long thin strips of lime zest, or finely sliced kaffir lime leaves. Or let the green chilli infuse the coconut milk, nice.

# You now have a jugful of coconutty chicken stock left over - perfect as the base for tomorrow’s curry and rice.

# Drizzle the finished salad with a little of the thicker coconut cream if you remembered to save it, which you probably didn’t, because I didn’t suggest it earlier, sorry.

WAIT YOUR TURN, WATERMELON AND FETA SALAD, IT AIN’T SUMMER YET.

Thanks for dropping by. And special thanks to my right-hand man, Terry Durack, making sure we always have a lifetime supply of great anchovies in the house.

I would also like to acknowledge the traditional owners of the lands and waters upon which I work, live, cook and play; the Gadigal people of the Eora Nation. I fully support the Uluru Statement from the Heart, and for an Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander voice to be enshrined in Australia’s Constitution. It’s about time, folks.