Killer Salad Recipes

After seeing what I believe to be the first Tartan Salad, I was inspired to have a go myself. The first task was to choose a tartan, after looking through a lot of different tartan designs I chose this one, The Tartan of Holland.

I like the colours, and I had a bright orange pepper in the fridge that I thought would be ideal for the job. After some testing with foods that I thought may pass for the colour blue, which mother nature has chosen to overlook when handing out food colours, I decided to concentrate on the orange and brown strip that runs down the middle.

I very nearly used red cabbage, you can see it on the pic below, of the ingredients I used, but at the last minute decided against it, it just isn’t blue. For the orange I used a combination of Carrot and Pepper, for the brown colour I used Portobello Mushrooms, for the thin white stripes I used Celery, and for the darker blue/black lines I used Nori.

The second task was to make thin strips from the vegetables, I did this using a vegetable peeler for the carrot and pepper, a zester for the celery and a sharp knife for the mushrooms. I cut the Nori into strips using scissors. The mushrooms were the hardest of the ingredients to prepare, I sliced one Portobello Mushroom and then sliced each slice again to remove as much of the white flesh underneath the brown outer layer as possible.

I then began recreating the tartan. I did this directly onto the plate it would be served on, I like to make things easy. The carrot and pepper were quite easy to weave, although once weaved they did look exactly like each other, but they sure tasted different, so I didn’t worry about that at all.

The mushrooms were quite difficult to weave, there’s an understatement for you, they were very difficult, mainly because I had sliced them so thinly, but with some perseverance, and a second mushroom I got the effect I was after.

Next, I used the white and black strips, Celery and Nori, and simply laid them across the carrot, pepper and mushroom. The nearly finished tartan salad is below. It isn’t exactly like the cloth tartan, but the idea here to create an interpretation using salad ingredients, with the tartan as a basis for the design. The main thing is make sure it tastes good, which has got to be another consideration when choosing the ingredients.

Now comes the finishing touches, what to serve with the tartan salad. It was pretty cool today, so I wanted something warm for dinner. I had some Ravioli in the fridge and decided to use that. I also added some sliced Tomato, some of the Portobello Mushrooms that were over, and a handful of Endive, Lambs Lettuce and Beetroot, the last three ingredients put together are called a Bisto Salad.

To sum up, I really enjoyed the challenge of a this salad. It wasn’t the easiest salad I’ve ever made, and if you’re looking for something quick to have on the move, this isn’t the salad to choose. But, if you’re looking for something special for a dinner party for example then this is something that will certainly impress your guests, a killer salad.

I will be making more tartan salads, hopefully they will improve as I get more skilled at choosing ingredients to match designs, and my quest for blue goes on…… hmm I wonder if it’s possible to thread blueberries onto a string of celery? I’ll let you know….

Enjoy!

(1 votes, average: 4 out of 5)

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