Garbage Salad

The name alone should be enough to please the boy. This comes from Chicago and is really a set of antipasto ingredients put together to make an amazing salad

1 red onion, chopped

½ iceberg lettuce, chopped

½ radicchio, chopped

250g cherry tomatoes, halved

400g can chickpeas, drained & rinsed

150g emmenthal, diced

75g salami, cut into strips

15 Peppadew peppers, sliced

1 celery heart, chopped

Dressing

5tbsp red wine vinegar

7tbsp extra virgin olive oil

1tbsp honey

1 ½ tbsp Dijon mustard

1 clove garlic, bashed

The ingredient list is kind of also the instructions, with all the slicing, halving and chopping. My best friend Jon got me a set of really good kitchen knives last Christmas, so chopping is a real pleasure. Tip: sharpen your knife before starting.

The salami should be wide slices, so you end up with thin shreds, rather than the small sausage type. Look out for Peppadew peppers – sometimes called African peppers. They are sweet with a little tinge of heat. They come in jars.

As I said, this is from Chicago, so some Blues go on the CD player.

I think this looks really good served in a wide, shallow bowl with all the ingredients presented separately, each in their own zone going around the plate.

Make the vinaigrette – feel free to reduce the vinegar – I’m making this to our taste, which is rather sharp. Just mix everything together in a small jug and add plenty of salt and pepper. Leave it for 30 minutes for the flavours to relax into each other and give it a good stir from time to time to help it along.

So we’re ready to go. Present the big plate with some salad tongs and let the boy create the ‘garbage’. Dress well. Enjoy with some rustic bread. The boy is laughing at the blues track which seems to be of a guy complaining about his girl’s BO!