The Ten Ingredients Salad
This Chef Salad I have titled “Steph Salad,” because it’s my very favourite combination for a salad. One of the best things about being the chef is that I get to choose what we eat. I buy ingredients I like, I make dishes that I like, and everybody else in my household deals with it! Personally, I love salads with a lot going on!
My Steph Salad very much reminds me of the salad bars I used to frequent in London, like Chop’d. You could order and pay online, and then waltz up to the front of the (ridiculously long) queue and collect your custom salad. Ha! We had it all figured out. Back to work.
I have fine-tuned the specific ingredients over many years of trial and error, and Steph Salad is the result. I’ve divided the ingredient list into three groups; first the fresh salad stuff, second including the jars I keep on hand in the fridge, and lastly the proteins.
I implore you to give it a go, and if you really dislike one of my choices, by all means switch it up – you’re cheffing at your house, after all 👌
Ingredients – serves 2
The Fresh Stuff – the base
- Lettuce – 2 handfuls
- 1 Cucumber
- 1 Carrot
- 1 Avocado
The Jars – pantry or pickled
- Tomatoes – 10-12 Roasted Cherry Tomatoes or use 6-7 Sun-Dried tomatoes from a jar
- Kalamata Olives – one handful
- 1/2 of a red onion – sliced and steeped in a jar filled with apple cider vinegar
The Proteins – keep you satisfied
- 50 grams Feta or goats cheese (2 oz)
- Nuts – a handful of almond flakes – or try walnuts, pecans or pine nuts
- 2 Soft boiled eggs – or Leftover chicken, sliced – or Tortilla Espanola
Steph Salad Dressing
- Extra virgin, cold pressed olive oil
- Coarse Salt
Instructions
First, if you don’t already have pickling red onions, you have to make some. Slice a red onion and set in a small bowl or jar. Pour apple cider vinegar over it to cover and leave to steep – 15 minutes minimum but it will keep for days in the fridge.
Also, prepare your boiled eggs, if using. There are loads of methods, and they will differ mainly depending on the size of your eggs and whether they are fridge-cold. I set a pot of water to boil. Gently place 2 room-temperature “large” eggs into the boiling water, turn it down to medium, and set a timer for 7 minutes. When the timer goes off, I place the eggs into an ice bath for 10 minutes. The cold water makes them easier to peel – peel them and slice in two lengthwise.
Assembly
Then prepare the fresh ingredients. Wash, chop and spin dry your lettuce. Peel and grate the carrot. (I sometimes just slice the carrot if I’m feeling lazy.) Peel, de-seed and chop the cucumber – the cucumbers I find here seem to have thick skins and really large seeds. Halve the avocado and remove the pip, then scoop the avocado out with a spoon and roughly chop. Add all four ingredients to a big bowl and toss to combine.
Now, if you are using sun-dried tomatoes, remove the quantity you want from the jar and chop into bite size chunks. Roasted Cherry Tomatoes don’t require chopping. Add the tomatoes, olives and sliced red onions from the steeping liquid. I also add a teaspoon or two of the apple cider vinegar as dressing.
Finally, add the nuts and cheese into the bowl. Drizzle olive oil and grind a bit of salt on top to taste.
Give it a good mix and portion out onto a plate. Top with the egg or leftover sliced chicken. Delicious! I love this salad and I hope you do too!
