Chicken, Bacon & Corn Salad

Summery salads have been a bit of a thing in my kitchen lately. I'm loving this one. It's a salad that certainly doesn't leave me hungry and the honey mustard dressing is to die for. 

Chicken, Bacon & Corn Salad

1/2 cup frozen corn

mixed lettuce leaves

4 bacon rashers

chicken, cooked and shredded 

1 avocado, sliced

coriander to garnish

Cook corn in a frying pan until lightly toasted. Remove from pan and allow to cool. Dice bacon and cook in frying pan. While cooking make the dressing. When cooked, allow to cool then combine and toss all ingredients.

Dressing

1 teaspoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon honey

1 teaspoon lime juice

olive oil

In a small bowl, add mustard, honey and lime juice, whisk until creamy. Slowly add olive oil while whisking, keep adding olive oil until dressing is at desired thickness, taste and quantity (don't add more than 1/4 cup or other flavours will be lost)

Prawn Chop Salad

Prawn Chop Salad
I'm really becoming an advocate of the spring/summer salad trend. It's a bit new for us as my husband has so frequently booed salads off our menu but he's somehow become more open minded and accepting of leaves for dinner.

This one was especially popular as he is a huge fan of prawns. I am not such a huge fan of prawns….or any seafood for that matter (see the fish taco saga of Hawaii) so this was a gamble for me from the very beginning. It worked out surprisingly well and was a quick and tasty weeknight dinner.

Prawn Chop Salad
Prawns
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1/2 teaspoon paprika
1/4 teaspoon cayenne pepper
prawns
1 tablespoon butter

Melt butter in a frying pan. Add prawns and spices. Cook until prawns are golden in colour.

Salad
Avocado, sliced
Chopped baby spinach leaves
Chopped coriander leaves
1 zucchini, shredded
toasted peanuts

Combine all ingredients.

Dressing
1/4 teaspoon minced ginger
1 tablespoon oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 teaspoon brown sugar
1/2 teaspoon minced garlic
sprinkle salt

Combine all ingredients.

Assemble prawns and salad components into sections of a serving bowl. Top with dressing when ready to serve.

Thai Beef Salad

Summer is coming….which, as Game of Thrones has taught me, indicates that the weather will be warm, people will be prosperous and the snow loving walking dead will stay on their side of the wall. It also signals the time of year when salads are an acceptable dinner option. For many people I'm sure salads are an all year round affair but we consistently fall into the pasta, pastry, potato slump of winter. Which is amazing, but also has to come to an end. So salads. This is a thing now.

Thai Beef Salad
Beef
Sliced beef
1 tablespoon vinegar
1 tablespoon soy suace
1 tablespoon brown sugar
1/4 teaspoon chilli flakes
1 teaspoon minced garlic
1 tablespoon sesame seeds
splash olive oil

Combine all ingredients and allow to marinate. Cook over a low heat until sauce has reduced and beef has browned slightly. Rest and let cool.

Salad
Capsicum, thinly sliced and lightly cooked
Spinach/kale, shredded
Carrot, thinly shredded
Zucchini, thinly shredded
1/2 red chilli, thinly sliced
Cashews, crushed
Edamame

Lightly boil the edamame let cool then shell the beans. Combine all the ingredients apart from the cashews in a large bowl.

Dressing
1 tablespoon soy sauce
2 cloves of garlic
1 tablespoon honey
1 tablespoon water
1/2 tablespoon vinegar
1/4 teaspoon ginger
splash olive oil
splash lemon juice

Process all ingredients until combined.

When ready to serve, layer the salad into a bowl and mix through the cashews, top with the beef and dressing.

Prawn Salad

I hate prawns. Really, I do. And this has been a constant problem throughout my life. My family LOVE prawns. Every Christmas they gather around a big bowl of prawns and begin the beheading, devaining and undressing before devouring. I don't get involved in this, consuming perhaps two at most just to keep everyone happy.

Mr B loves prawns. When we first got together

I'm sure he told me he didn't like them but he denies ever saying this! So tonight, for him, I made a prawn salad.

Now, the salad I had intended to make and the one I actually made were vastly different, mostly because I didn't have much of the stuff I needed to make the original one so this is the one I made

Prawns

10 prawns

1/3 cup flour

1 egg

1/3 cup bread crumbs

Salad

lettuce leaves

avocado

grated carrot

grated cucumber

tomato

drop of mayo

Dressing

1/3 cup chicken stock

1 tablespoon soy sauce

1/2 teaspoons ginger

sprinkle of chilli

honey

Make sure your prawns are ready to go. Mr B did this for me coz they are icky to touch. Then you need to butterfly them.

I'd never done this before and found it quite time consuming. I watched a few YouTube clips on it - it seems that the "chef" way to do it is butterfly them down the front. I did this but found it tricky, so half way through I started just doing it down their spine and this was a gajillion times easier and thus, quicker. The only thing to be careful of is to not cut the whole way through them but you really have to be clumsy to do this! Go ahead and crumb them (flour, egg, breadcrumbs) and place to the side.

Combine all the dressing ingredients and pop on the stove, not for long just long enough for it to mingle. Then take it off the heat and pop into the fridge. Make your salad and begin to cook the prawns.

Put some oil in a frypan, enough to shallow fry. Place one small prawn in as the prawn to let you know when the oil is ready. When it is - add all the other prawns, they cook really quick so keep an eye on them. When done - take out of the oil and place on paper towel and dry.

Take the dressing out of the fridge, pour over the salad and place the prawns on top. Top the whole thing off with a dollop of mayo.