A couple of summer salads

Huzzah, summer is still here! So inspired by Yotam Ottolenghi and Nigella, I've tried to come up with a few salad recipes that can be served warm or at room temperature, and don't require loads of standing around in a hot kitchen. And the results of this have been an aubergine, feta cheese, tomato, and basil salad, and a green bean, spring onion, and almond salad. The aubergine salad just requires the aubergine to be fried in olive oil, and when cooled a bit mixed with the cheese, chopped tomatoes, and basil, and seasoned with a (little salt) and pepper. The oiliness of the aubergines means that no further dressing is required, but the salty cheese cuts through some of this richness.

For the green beans, I just steamed these in the microwave and softened the sliced spring onions in olive oil. Once the onions were almost done, I added in some flaked almonds and carried on cooking until they took on a bit of colour. The onions and nuts were then tipped over the cooked beans, with any extra oil acting as a dressing, and the whole lot seasoned well. I served both these salads with an Ottolenghi mushroom dish I've written about before, to make an excellent summer vegetarian meal that also avoided overheating in the kitchen.

Salmon salad nicoise

I was intending to write this post a couple of weeks ago. I was wearing sandals, wandering around in a floaty skirt, and keen on moving on from hearty winter fare to something a little lighter for my dinners. However summer seems to finished now, and I am back to being wrapped in a scarf. Humph.
Anyway, this is one of my favourite quick summer meals. A traditional tuna nicoise salad combines tinned tuna with boiled potatoes, salad leaves, tomato, green beans, boiled egg, anchovies and olives. This version replaces the tinned fish with some freshly grilled salmon fillets, and I've previously used fresh tuna steaks too. I omitted the tomato (realised I didn't have any) and olives (thought the anchovy would add enough saltiness), and added in some finely sliced red onion (for a bit of extra sharpness). This is not one of those recipes that requires precise amounts of ingredients so the below are really only guidelines, and you can also add in the components that I left out if you like them.

Recipe (enough for two):
2 salmon fillets, grilled, skin removed
Around 12 small new potatoes, boiled
2 eggs, boiled until hard or soft, quartered
6 anchovy fillets
1 small red onion, finely sliced
2 generous handfuls of green beans, boiled or steamed until tender
1 bag of mixed salad leaves

Dressing:
Around 6tbsp olive oil
Around 2tbsp lemon juice
Salt and pepper to taste

So simply whisk together the dressing, assemble all the above ingredients, and pour over. I like to eat this while it's still warm with the dressing being absorbed by the potatoes, and their residual heat also slightly softening the onion. But it's perfectly nice at room temperature too. Ideally serve when it's a lovely summer day.