Mix and Match Salads

Getting started  We are going to start by cooking 4 ingredients, each of which could be used as the basis of a salad. They are:  100g Pasta shapes  4 Potatoes  100g Couscous  100g Brown rice

To cook the pasta shapes: half-fill a large saucepan with water and add ½ a 5ml spoon of salt.

Add 1 x 15ml spoon of oil. Turn the pan on a high setting and bring to the boil.

When the water comes to the boil, add 100g dried pasta shapes. Reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 10 minutes until the pasta is ‘al dente’ (cooked but still slightly firm).

Drain the pasta and rinse under cold water.

Put the cooked pasta into a bowl.

To cook potatoes: bring a pan of cold salted water to the boil.

Peel 4 potatoes and cut in halves or quarters depending on the size. Add to the boiling water. (the water should almost cover the potatoes). Reduce the heat and simmer for 15 minutes until cooked but not too soft.

Drain, and leave in the colander to cool.

When cool, cut into dice.

Place the prepared potatoes in a bowl.

To prepare couscous: weigh out 100g of couscous and place in a bowl. Add 125ml of boiling water. (check the instructions on the packet, amounts may vary).

Cover, and leave for about 10 minutes.

Mix with a fork to separate the grains.

To cook brown rice: half fill a saucepan with salted water and bring to the boil. Add 100g brown rice, reduce the heat and simmer for approximately 25 minutes until soft, but still with some ‘bite’.

Drain in a colander or sieve and rinse under cold running water. Place in a bowl.

The four prepared ingredients should now look like this. Clockwise from the top, brown rice, potatoes, pasta, couscous.

The next two slides show a selection of prepared ingredients which could be added to the pasta, potatoes, couscous or rice.

White cabbage, red cabbage, shredded lettuce, sweetcorn, grated carrot, diced celery, cress, chopped tomatoes, black olives, chopped red onion, diced red pepper, diced cucumber, sliced radishes sun dried tomatoes, fresh parsley, fresh basil, fresh chives, chopped salad onions

Pineapple cubes, feta cheese, red kidney beans, pinto beans, black eyed beans Sultanas, chopped dried apricots Cashew nuts, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, pine nuts

Now Follow the PowerPoints for each recipe to make your Mix & Match Salads Tomato, Red Onion & Feta Salad Ritzy Rice Salad Pronto Pasta Salad Tasty Taboulleh