Summer Salads

It’s always summer in Abu Dhabi. People may be calling October “autumn” and December “winter”, but that just doesn’t fly with me. It’s over 25 degrees; therefore it’s summer, and summer means salad time!

If summer wasn’t enough reason to be making delicious salads, husband has decided he is now on a low carb diet. No more pasta, rice or potatoes for us. The loss of my much-loved bi-weekly meal of Chicken Pesto Pasta weighs heavily on my heart, but I digress.

Salads are great. There’s no need for cooking (well, mostly) anything, it never takes more than fifteen minutes to whip up a salad and there is a lot of chopping involved. I like chopping (see my Tabbouleh post). I wish my chopping skills were as impressive as those of the Master Chef contestants, but even without lightning-fast knife moves at my disposal it’s still pretty fun.

Yesterday I made an old favorite: lemony courgette salad. It really is the most simple thing ever, but so delicious. Plus, it goes well with anything; from steak to pasta.

Slice a bunch of courgettes lengthwise in thin strips; I use a potato peeler for this which works great on the small courgettes we get here in the Middle East. On the big European ones I suspect a mandoline slicer will work better, but my kitchen equipment is decidedly basic and I don’t own one of those. Toss the strips in a bowl with some chopped herbs, I like using mint for this since I always seem to have leftover fresh mint. Must be the Lebanese influences in this house… Anyway, you could also use parsley or tarragon.
Make a vinaigrette with the juice of one lemon, about the same amount olive oil, a teaspoon or so of honey and some salt and pepper. Mix well, then pour over the salad. Now you can refrigerate it (covered) until you need it, if you want. I like putting it in the fridge for an hour or so at this stage, as the courgettes will soak up the honey lemony flavor. Yum.

Just before serving, throw some toasted pine nuts and/or grated Parmesan cheese on top. Entirely optional, but very tasty! Omnomnom.