Friday 2 January 2015

Happy Healthy feta salad for IHCC

Obviously, I like food. I like it a lot. But maybe it is a sign of old age or something, but increasingly I prefer food that makes me feel good after I have eaten it, as well as while I eat it.

That's the point where this week's I Heart Cooking Clubs falls. The theme is Happy, Healthy! the good-for-you dishes that taste great. And fortunately this is an area where the current featured cook, Diana Henry, really excels. She does the most amazingly enticing things with vegetables and salads...

Deb had already made Diana's orange and fennel salad with feta and pomegranate for the October Potluck IHCC, but it was too good not to feature again. And the version I made, from A Change of Appetite, also included almonds caramelised in honey and spices.

As I was making it in the lead up to Christmas though, I gave it a little twist using pistachios instead of almonds.

I served it with Sabrina Ghayour's za'atar cod with relish. The fish totally fell apart, but it was delicious, as was the relish that went with it. I used a couple of home-pickled habaneros instead of the milder, commercial pickled chillies. It was a wonderful combination! It reminded me a bit of one of my most memorable ever meals, red emperor with tapenade and a Greek salad, at The Bathers Pavilion, back in the days when Victoria Alexander was chef. Even without that bit of nostalgia it was a superb meal - several days later Paul was still saying how much he enjoyed it.

10 comments:

Joyce Rachel Lee said...

Adding feta to salad is delicious!

Joanne said...

I think those nuts would have made the salad for me! Such a lovely meal.

Deb in Hawaii said...

This looks fabulous--now I want to go back and make it again with the nuts. ;-) I loved that you used pistachios in place of the almonds. That za'atar cod looks pretty wonderful too.

Alicia Foodycat said...

Joyce - I just love feta in salads!

Joanne - the nuts were the bomb. Definitely made it!

Deb - I think you would love the fish!

Sherry's Pickings said...

This sounds delish! Happy new year.

Kim said...

Right now I'm pretty much drooling over how flaky and delicious your cod looks! It looks marvelous! Not to mention, your salad is certainly a beautiful and vibrant side dish. Gorgeous!

Zosia said...

That salad was the first Diana Henry dish I made.....the almonds were one of my favourite parts but it would be soooo good with pistachios instead.

kitchen flavours said...

I can see why you've enjoyed the salad! It looks really delicious! And serving it with cod sounds really, really, good!

grace said...

first of all, glazed pistachios sound amazing just by themselves! atop this salad, though, you might've achieved green perfection. :)

Couscous & Consciousness said...

That salad is amazing and I'm loving the addition of the caramelised pistachios.

I'm also totally smitten with the idea of the za'atar cod - sounds like heaven to me.

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