Summery Sausage Salad

We heard from Sainsbury's that their Taste the Difference sausages are now all gluten free and were asked if we'd like to try some.  Of course, we said YES, please!  

Having gone into store, it was easy to see the great new packaging for the TTD sausages and made a selection of the ones Sous Chef J will eat (thin ones... aka chipolatas or cocktail sausages).

As it was a sunny weekend, we decided an 'all-in-one' sausage salad dish would be a good meal to create. Pairing the sausages with some freshly cooked charlotte potatoes, a few salad onions and a homemade dressing/sauce, we thought we'd have a simple and tasty meal for eating outdoors.

The dressing was made using store cupboard standbys -

2 Tablespoons tomato ketchup
2 Tablespoons cider vinegar
1 Tablespoon grainy mustard
1 Tablespoon honey

All this was mixed together and half of the sliced salad onions were added.

The sausages were separated and added to a hot frying pan to cook through.

Adding half of the sauce to the sausages and cooking to make it sticky...

.... whilst the sausages were cooking, the charlotte potatoes were boiled.  Once cooked and drained, the potatoes were put in a bowl and the remainder of the sauce was poured over and stirred through.

Finally, the sausage and sauce mix was added to the potatoes, stirred and the remaining onions were sprinkled over.

The sausage salad was delicious!

We'll definitely be adding TTD Sausages to our shopping list... and particularly liked the "snap and keep" packaging - allowing half the sausages to be saved for another day/frozen.

DISCLOSURE - we were sent a gift card by Sainsbury's to be used for buying sausages and ingredients for this recipe.  The recipe and opinions in this post are our own.

Home Grown Tomato Salsa

We've had a fantastic crop of tomatoes in the garden this year which has resulted in a daily harvest of more than a handful of ripe fruits to 'deal with'.  As Sous Chef J is a big fan of salsa we decided to use our garden haul to make a try at our own salsa. 

Looking round the garden, we gathered a few salad onions, a small bunch of flat leaf parsley and a chilli... to go with the tomatoes.


The tomatoes were washed and chopped.




Having found a small lemon in the fridge, we used a reamer to juice it.


We also washed and chopped the onions before carefully removing the chilli seeds and finely chopping that.

The parsley was roughly chopped, added to the bowl with the other ingredients and the lemon juice was added and mixed through.

That was it - our version of salsa was ready for eating with gluten free tortilla chips.

Feta Salad

This is a really simple, tasty summertime salad.

The ingredients needed for two portions are - 

 

Feta cheese, about 100g, cubed

2 tomatoes, cubed
10cm cucumber, peeled and cubed
30ml (2Tbsp) oil (we used sunflower)
30ml (2Tbsp) cider vinegar

Peel and cube the cucumber and add to serving bowls...







Dice the tomatoes and add to the bowl.





Drain off the feta and dice...







... before adding to the bowls.



Finally, pour over the oil and vinegar and make sure the salad components are well coated.  Serve!

Tuna, Walnut and Grape Salad

As the title suggests, this is a tuna salad with grapes and walnuts.  Added to the 'mix' is some mayonnaise to bind things together but, apart from a generous twist of freshly ground black pepper, it's a simple dish to make.

Ingredients gathered as follows - one 185g tin tuna (drained), a good handful of walnut bits (about 75g), a small bunch of seedless grapes (about 125g) and a large dollop of mayonnaise (we used 3 heaped dessert spoonsful)














The walnuts were roughly chopped and the grapes were halved (this not only makes them go further - a thrifty tip - but also makes Sous Chef J able to eat them more easily)


Having drained the tuna, the mayonnaise was mixed through and then the other ingredients were added and combined. 

Finally, seasoning with some freshly ground pepper and the salad was then ready to eat.  We served it with crisps and a green salad. 

It's a great dish for a packed lunch, goes well at a bbq and you can adjust the amounts/ratios of ingredients according to your taste or availability of ingredients.

Speedy Mushroom Sauce

Things are not quite 'right' here at the moment. Sous Chef J is rather unwell (more on that in later posts, I should think) and, as a result our life is even more chaotic than usual.

Luckily, we were sent some samples of Boursin Cheese the other week and during a lunchtime fridge audit (those of you that follow me on twitter may recognise that term!) I spotted the Garlic and Herb Boursin loitering alongside a few mushrooms.  It wasn't a great leap of culinary genius that lead to my mind coming up with a plan to use them together but a moment of thinking "that'd go well together"... so I gathered the ingredients and set about trying an ad hoc concoction.

An onion was finely chopped and fried in a little oil over a low heat for a few minutes during which time the mushrooms were cleaned, de-stalked and chopped.   The 3 chestnut mushrooms (they were quite large) and a handful of button mushrooms were added to the frying onions and a knob of butter was added.  This was all then left over a low heat for about 10 minutes to sweat down.  A squeeze of lemon juice was added to the pan and mixed well.

The mushroom mix was then drained in a sieve to remove excess moisture.  It was then blitzed using our Braun stick blender.

Finally, a whole pack of "Boursin Ail & Fines Herbes" was added and quickly whizzed to combine.  The mix was then placed in a jar and stored in the fridge until teatime when we cooked some Dove's Farm Gluten Free Pasta, drained it, returned it to the cooking pan and mixed the mushroom sauce through. 

We thought it was delicious, although in his current, under the weather state, am sorry to report that Sous Chef J would "not even taste a molecule". 

However, we tried half of the summer flavour Sun Ripened Tomato, Onion and Chive Boursin stirred through the warm pasta and the young Chef's plate was cleared so fast, there was no time for a photo! 

To use up the remainder of the pack, we also added the cheese to a salad to accompany our steamed salmon the next night making another quick and tasty meal. 

Thanks to Kirsty for sending the samples.  They've provided us with the chance to make speedy, tasty food when we've really needed to be spending as little time as possible on daily chores. 

Chicken Zorba

This recipe comes from a pal of ours.  She had a recipe card with it on but I have no idea where it came from originally.  It's basic and tasty and a good summer dish... although can, of course, be eaten throughout the year.

When we found some pitta bread in the Sainsbury's Free From aisle the other week, we decided to give this recipe a go as a gluten free option.  As ever, Sous Chef J gathered the ingredients.

500g chicken fillets (we used thighs) diced
1 teaspoon cumin powder
1 teaspoon coriander powder
½ teaspoon turmeric powder
2 limes, juiced
one small carton houmous


one small carton greek yogurt (we used a few spoons of home made natural yogurt)
Pitta bread parcels (we used Sainsbury's Gluten Free)
Tomato and cucumber salad to serve

We marinaded the diced chicken in the lime juice and spice mixtures for 20-30 minutes. We did this by combining the lime juice and the three spices in an old takeaway container, then adding the chicken pieces, adding the lid and shaking well.

Whilst the chicken marinaded, we prepared the salad and combined the houmous and yogurt to make a dip.

Once the chicken was ready to cook a tablespoon of oil was added to a frying pan and the chicken was fried until cooked thoroughly.

We then warmed and split the pitta bread pockets to serve with the chicken and salad with houmous/yogurt dip.

Sous Chef J couldn't wait to enjoy the fruits of our labours!