Tiffin Tuesday - Summer Salads!

Summer salads! It's still summer because the calendar says so, and never too late to get your fresh veggies from the garden used up!


The bentobox contains the leftovers:

• Caprese: Mozarella, cherry tomatoes, fresh basil, extra virgin olive oil (I use "fruttato", which means that it has a very strong flavor, for my salads), balsamico vinegar. Salt and pepper. Pure and lovely!
  
• Corn and pineapple salad with red onions, mayo (I stretched it with light creme fraiche to avoid becoming too fatty), herbes de provence, salt and pepper. And a bit of juice from the canned pineapple to sweeten.
  
• Tabbouleh: Tabbouleh is a salad recipe from the middle east. It’s really easy to make and fresh and tasty in summer!
  There are some recipes online but I wasn’t happy with any of them so I’ll just post a short writeup of my own.
  First, cook couscous or fine bulgur by putting it in a bowl, pouring hot water on just so all is wet, but no excessive water is there, add a little flock of butter and salt, stir and let it rest for 10 minutes or until it has soaked up all water and is soft.
  Then mix it with crumbled feta, chopped tomatoes, chopped mint and parsley (you are supposed to add enough parsley to make the mixture mostly green, but I’m not such a big fan of parsley), and chopped salad onions or green onions (optional).
  Drizzle on lemon juice, olive oil, and freshly ground pepper. Salt to taste.
  Then the fun part starts: Wet your hands a little or put on rubber gloves, and start kneading the salad with your hands! It needs a nice massage so the flavours can mix and be soaked up by the couscous. If it’s nice and sticky, but not doughy, you did it right.
  Chill for a bit before serving, and enjoy!
  
• and an experimental Brown Rice Sallad with brown rice, grapes, cauliflower and curry. I like to mix sweet and sour tastes in my salads, as you can see, and the grapes just give this thing the right kick!

In the middle some pieces of baguette, and I'll probably take another one which I'll toast in the morning (I have frozen readybaked baguettes in my freezer, for such emergencies).

Tips for packing salads in a lunchbox:

• Use salad recipes that have little dressing at all (like tabbouleh or rice salads) or a thick dressing that sticks to the salad well (like mayo)
  
• In any case, drain the salad well before packing. Use smaller containers (I used two muffin cups each) to hold in the moisture.
  
• Consider wrapping anything that needs to stay dry like bread, crackers, croutons.
  
• If you need extra dressing, bring it in a little bottle or side container.

Did I forget anything now?

Oh, right: If you pack leafy salads, best to put all the dressing on the side and toss it directly when you eat it, it gets least soggy that way!

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This Post was written by jokergirl from Were Rabbits