Juancho's Garden Salad
This colorful, easy and healthy tomato, corn and cucumber garden salad can be served with all kinds of hot smoked meat from your barbecue. In summer we use fresh vegetables and herbs from our barbecue garden.
The crispy corn gives body to this salad, while cucumber and tomato are the lighter fillers. Mint gives this healthy salad a surprisingly fresh taste. Juancho also throws in a bouquet of fresh herbs to add a nice and spicy flavour.
The quantities mentioned herein should be sufficient as a sidedish for like six to eight persons.
Ingredients
Veggies
| 1 |
| 10 dry ounces |
| 10 dry ounces
|
| 1/2 pound |
| 1/2 cup
|
| 1 |
| cucumber, diced |
| crispy corn (medium size can, drained) |
| green lettuce or mixed lettuce (regular lettuce, iceberg, rucola, or whatever is available) |
| tomato, diced |
| mint leaves, prefereably the sturdier ("Turkish"?) kind, shredded |
| onion, finely chopped |
Standard Salad Dressing
This is our standard dressing that we use for just about all salads:
| 5 tablespoons |
| 2 tablespoons |
| 1 teaspoon |
| 1/4 teaspoon |
| olive oil (prefereably a fruity Extra Virgine) |
| vinegar |
| black peppercorns, ground medium coarse |
| seasalt, no iodine |
Olive Oil! Olive oil is good for your body! If you feel there's too much olive oil in this salad, just add some more! ;o)
Herbs
For his Garden Salad, Juancho adds a combination of herbs to reinforce the above Standard Salad Dressing. These herbs are picked fresh in Juancho's little Herb Garden. Through the year quantities may vary depending on season and actual availability in the garden.
If there's any herb on the list that you can't get, don't worry. This kind of salad recipe is begging for improvisation.
Immediately after chopping, the herbs are stirred into the mix of olive oil and vinegar, so you will achieve a maximum transfer of aroma and flavour into the dressing.
These are the herbs I used for the salad in the picture:
| 2 tablespoons |
| 1 tablespoon |
| 1 tablespoon |
| 5 cloves |
| rosemary, finely chopped |
| tarragon, finely chopped |
| sage, chopped |
| garlic, finely chopped |
Garlic! Garlic is good for your health! If you feel there's too much garlic in this salad, just add some more! ;o)
Preparation
- |
Allow the corn to drain. |
- |
Make the dressing with the fresh herbs. Mix thoroughly (shake vigorously if possible) and set aside to allow the aromas of the herbs to be absorbed by the dressing. |
- |
Wash the cucumber, cut in quarters lengthwise, cut out the seedy parts, cut the four strips lengthwise again to obtain eight strips, cut strips into dice. |
- |
Wash the tomatoes, cut in quarters, cut out seedy parts, and cut quarters into dice. |
- |
Wash mint leaves while on the stem and set apart. Mint is quite vulnerable, therefore you do not want to rip and cut the leaves until just before serving. |
- |
Chop the onion as fine as possible. |
- |
Put lettuce and other vegetables in a large salad bowl and mix well. |
Above activities can be done well before serving.
Right before serving:
- |
Rip the mint leaves from the stems, chop, and add to salad. |
- |
Stir dressing one last time, add to salad, and mix salad to spread dressing evenly. |
Attack!
The PitMaster Suggests
Juancho's Garden Salad goes very well with:
Juanita's Smoked Chicken Legs
When on a Saturday in June 2005 the whole chickens were sold out, we entered into a new era. With Juanita's Smoked Chicken Legs we were heading for a long hot summer!
Hot Smoked Guinea Fowl
With this Guinea fowl recipe you will discover that you can barbecue or grill Guinea fowl just as easily as the ordinary chicken. Compared to chicken, Guinea fowl tastes more like game.
Blue Smoke Barbecue Fries
Once you have tried these smoke-grilled potatoes, you won't be able to resist making them every time you see some spare space on the grate...
Just in case, if you are fond of pasta salad, check this out:
Pasta Salad #5
This great pasta salad can be served with all kinds of barbecue, but can also be eaten as a vegetarian main course accompanied by bread and your favourite white wine.
