I shouldn’t have rushed so much taking this photo, but I was sooooo hungry. It’s a variation on a recipe that I saw in Australian Women’s Weekly “Main Course Salads”. (I highly recommend this series of cookbooks - great photos and simple recipes.) The original recipe called for a truckload of couscous and chicken sausage. Finding turkey or chicken sausage at our local grocery store is pretty hit or miss. It seems like they only get a few packages in a week or someone in Centretown is hoarding sausage. Both options are totally possible.

At any rate, we substituted chorizo for the chicken and halved the amount of couscous that the original version called for. The result was this really nice Mediterranean flavoured salad that was a hearty side dish to our personal pizzas.

Ingredients:

• 3/4 cup couscous
• 3/4 cup chicken stock
• 1 cup sliced green olives
• 4-5 sliced green onions
• mild chorizo (approximately 125g or half a package of the President’s Choice brand chorizo)
• 1/4 cup olive oil
• 1/4 cup lemon juice
• lemon zest
• 1 can of chickpeas (washed and drained)
• 1/4 cup (or more) chopped cilantro

Bring the chicken stock to a boil - add the couscous and remove from heat.  Let sit for five minutes and fluff with a fork.  Meanwhile - slice the chorizo into bite size pieces and toss in a frying pan to crisp up the edges.  Use as much chorizo as you like.  Toss everything into a mixing bowl: couscous, olives, oil, lemon juice, zest, onions, chickpeas and cilantro.  Serve!

Boyfriendly rating: 5/5

The prerequisites that led up to this salad: must have grilled veggies, shaved parmesan cheese and arugula.  I think I was feeling particularly inspired after flipping through Jamie at Home and he did a similar salad (minus the arugula).

After a rare trip to the Byward Market on Sunday, we came home with more than just herbs for planting.  We ended up with wild garlic, asparagus and some extremely cute baby eggplants.  (PS: it’s the last week for wild garlic!)

I “fired up” the Mario Batalli grill, tossed the eggplant slices in a bit of olive oil, salt and pepper and set them grilling for about 15 minutes.  Once they were done, in went the asparagus for another 10-15 minutes.

Serving this salad couldn’t be easier - toss some arugula on the plate, load up with veggies, add cheese and finish with a does of olive oil, salt and pepper.  Maybe even a squeeze of lemon.  Easy.

This week’s veggie box also included arugula and some *really* delicious tangerines.  Arugula is another super leaf - Wikipedia tells me it’s high in vitamin C and iron.  It’s peppery taste was also considered an aphrodisiac in Roman times.  Ahem.

Moving on.  What to do? Salad time.

Boyfriendly arugula and tangerine salad

• 2 cups torn arugula leaves
• 2 cups Mesculin mix
• 2 tangerines
• 1/3 cup toasted walnuts

Dressing:

• 1 Tbsp. raspberry vinegar
• 2 Tbsp. balsamic vinegar
• 1 Tbsp. dijon mustard (we used the coarse kind)
• 5 Tbsp. olive oil
• pinch sugar
• salt & pepper to taste

(This recipe makes twice as much dressing as you need - so you’ll need to make the salad part fresh again the next day.)
Boyfriendly rating: 5/5. Another winner! And probable dinner party salad.

This week’s veggie box had a kohlrabi bulb - a new vegetable to me. After some Googling, I came across this salad recipe from ABC in Western Australia and thought I’d give it a try.

It was interesting and tasty and would be great in the summer. The ginger is a nice touch - it makes it feel less like coleslaw.

Boyfriendly rating: 4/5 “love the ginger”

You need:
1 large kohlrabi, finely grated
1 apple, grated
1 clove of garlic
2 small carrots, finely grated
1/2 red onion, cut in cubes
1 tablespoon of grated ginger (I used candied ginger)
2 tablespoons of cider vinegar
2 tablespoons of toasted cashew nuts (I didn’t toast the nuts!)
Sea salt to taste
Black pepper to taste
3 tablespoons of flaxseed oil

Mix the vinegar, salt and pepper in a salad bowl and whisk in the oil slowly. Add the vegetables, toss and decorate with the toasted cashews.