Salad days

A lovely sunny bank holiday weekend - I can't remember it being so warm in April.

As the temperature rises my thoughts turn to simple salad dishes. I have been thinking about cookbooks I am currently using or have used in the past. In the early days I used to rely on numerous Rose Elliot vegetarian cookbooks, a few wholefood books whose names I no longer recall, and I was also fond of the first Cranks cookbook which is sadly no longer in print (my own well-thumbed copy long since lost). The Cranks Bible remains on my book shelf and in many ways is the superior book, but I have a nostalgia for the old book (and the old restaurants which I frequented when living in London).

These days most vegetarian books distance themselves from the old fashioned "brown rice and lentils" worthy wholefood style of cookery of the seventies/eighties. Its wonderful the array of good quality vegetarian and vegan cuisine that is now available but there are days when I still hanker after the old school dishes. Friday was one of those days. The day at home, I had planned to try a new soup dish requiring a lot of prep... but it was warm and in the end I just threw together a brown rice salad and it was delicious. Lemon and olive oil dressing, a little grating of garlic. Short grain brown rice (I know all the books say use long grain in savoury dishes but I disagree, I tend to stick to short grain and occasionally brown basmati). Then its to the fridge and see what's there. Some chopped cucumber, tomatoes, big handful of parsley, this is beginning to take shape. I lightly steam some asparagus and purple sprouting broccoli from the weekly veg box, add a tin of chick peas and some chopped black olives and I am done. Adjust the seasoning and serve with some leftover  feta cheese. I used to live on such salads in the summer months, using whatever was on hand, some toasted seeds, a handful of chopped nuts, some chopped fresh or dried fruit.

The next day I eat the remaining salad with some delicious smoked lancashire cheese from Mrs Kirkham that I picked up when we visited Manchester on Saturday. A spoonful of onion chutney bought from the same market completed the meal. It may not be Masterchef but still a flavour explosion nonetheless.