Honey and Mustard Chicken Salad

Could it finally be the return of the salad days?  I don’t want to jinx the weather but with sunshine comes the need for fresh, vibrant and salad based food, and this really is no ordinary salad: it is a glorious and powerful superfood salad and there is nothing quite like it to give your body a boost of energy and vitality.  Other than their obvious nutritious benefits, salads are a colourful, crisp and happy way of eating.  Whether eaten as the main affair or had as an accompaniment; salads always benefit from the fact that they get to be shared.  I think I have spoken before about how much I love to serve large one pot meals that everyone has to dip in to, or a spread of mezze or tapas that can be passed around and picked at in a way that brings people together.  Sharing food in this way makes eating a bonding experience - you all try the same things and interact with each other over a central point (or pot!)  For people suffering from food intolerances and allergies, feeling included at the meal table is often as significant as the food that they are eating.  Eating in a shared, social and positive way reinforces the idea that living with food sensitivities doesn’t have to be an isolating experience, and that is a feeling that I personally would like to champion.

Here, the combination of sweet peas, peppery watercress and cool and creamy avocado make the perfect foil for some tender poached chicken breasts, nutty pumpkin seeds and a sweet and tangy honey mustard dressing.  I love the way the honey and mustard emulsify with the oil to form such a creamy and thick dressing.  It is perfect for serving over salads but I find it equally successful when served with some cooked, cold ham, thickly cut and treacly on the edges.  If it’s a bit on the chilly side outside then serve this salad with a bowl of brown basmati rice or a baked sweet potato – it makes a lovely midweek supper, powering you forward towards the weekend.  

I have made the proportions to serve two but you can easily double it for four.  If you are poaching four chicken breasts instead of two then you will need to change the cooking times: bring a large pan of water containing the lemon juice and coriander stalks to the boil, add the chicken breasts, cover, remove from the heat and then leave for 1 hour before draining and patting dry.

HONEY MUSTARD CHICKEN

Serves 2 as a main or 4 as an accompaniment

For the salad

A large bunch of watercress

100g/3½oz frozen garden peas

1 large ripe hass avocado

2 tbsp pumpkin seeds

2 skinless chicken breasts

The juice of 1 lemon, minus 1 tsp for the dressing

A small bunch of coriander 

For the dressing

2 tsp runny honey

2 tsp English Mustard – made using 2tsp ground mustard flour mixed with 2tsp of water

1 tsp lemon juice

3 tbsp olive oil

Begin by preparing the dressing.  Combine the honey and the mustard in a bowl and whisk together.  Add the olive oil bit by bit, whisking continuously to create an emulsion.  Add the lemon juice and then season well.  Taste the dressing and add a little extra lemon juice or seasoning if you think it needs it.  Remove the peas from the freezer, place in a bowl and leave to defrost while you prepare the remaining ingredients.

Trim the stalks from the coriander and place in a large saucepan of water.  Add a large pinch of salt and the juice from the lemon, cover and bring to the boil.  Once the water is boiling, add the chicken breasts to the water, bring back to the boil and then cover and remove from the heat.  Leave the pan to sit for half an hour before draining the chicken breasts and patting dry.  This method allows the chicken to poach slowly, retaining the tenderness of the meat and adding a piquant flavour from the lemon and coriander. The chicken breasts will still be very hot when you remove them from the water so leave them to rest for 10 minutes before slicing.

Meanwhile, place the pumpkin seeds in a heavy frying pan and toast over a medium flame, shaking the pan every now and then to ensure they don’t catch, until toasted and fragrant.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool down.  Trim the thick stalks from the watercress and separate the leaves, scatter the watercress over a large serving plate.  Slice the avocado in half from tip to tail, twist gently with your hands, pull the halves apart and remove the stone.  Using a spoon, scoop out the avocado flesh in one piece and then cut lengthways into fine slices.  Tear the remaining coriander and scatter over the bed of watercress along with the garden peas and sliced avocado.  Transfer the poached chicken to a chopping board and slice against the grain into 1cm widths.  Layer the chicken on to the salad, scatter over the pumpkin seeds and drizzle over the honey mustard dressing. 

Three Green Pilaf

 

Middle Eastern cookery is a wonderful thing.  Packed full of sweet and savoury flavours, glorious textures and fragrant with mellow, ponderous spices it is always a pleasure to prepare a slow cooked tagine, a ripe and rich salad or a spiced pilaff.  The aromatics of this region seem to suit my soul: lemon, garlic, harissa, cinnamon, tamarind, sumac, saffron, ginger, cumin, chilli and honey, these are all heaven to me and what is equally wonderful, is that the vast majority of middle eastern cookery is naturally allergy friendly or, if not, easily lends itself to being adapted – you can replace bulgur wheat and couscous with quinoa and make pitta from gluten free flours.  My first experience of true Middle Eastern recipes was - like so many others - through the cooking and writing of Claudia Roden.  Claudia Roden hails from the Mediterranean Coast of Egypt and has written numerous beautiful works about the food of that region and beyond, her first being the definitive A Book of Middle Eastern Food, originally published in 1968 and still going strong, although some of the recipes have been reproduced in her more recent incarnation Saffron and Tamarind.

I love the way that Claudia Roden writes; she transports the reader to far flung places and wraps you in the heady scents of toasted spices, fragrant fruits, seared meats and baking terracotta.  If you are new to Middle Eastern cookery or perhaps only like to dabble in a little hummus and falafel from time to time, I implore you to get hold of a Claudia Roden Middle Eastern cook book; it will be both a joy to read and to cook from and is, as Claudia says herself: “all about pleasure and enjoyment but...also a way of discovering other worlds and other cultures”.

Pilaf is a traditional method of preparing rice that originated in the East.  In its very basic form a pilaf is made when the rice is browned in oil or butter with onion, then cooked in stock; halfway through cooking, vegetables, meat or fish can then be added.  Pilafs vary in ingredients but the one consistency is that a pilaf is always spiced.  This particular one is inspired by the glorious abundance of vegetables in season at the moment – I have a real passion for freshly podded peas, light, leafy spinach and bright, robust broccoli and they work really well together in this pilaf to make a lovely, aromatic, summer garden supper.

THREE GREEN PILAF

Serves 4

1 tbsp dairy free butter (Pure Sunflower Spread)

2 tbsp olive oil

2 medium white onions

1 large cup/400g brown basmati rice

2 large cups/1 litre hot vegetable stock

200g/7oz Broccoli

2 large handfuls of young or baby leaf spinach

150g/5½oz Peas, frozen or freshly podded

2 garlic cloves

1 tsp ground cumin

1 tsp ground coriander

½ tsp turmeric

80g/3oz apricots

40g/1½ oz sultanas

80g/3oz pine nuts

Begin by dry frying the pine nuts in a heavy based frying pan, over a medium heat until golden and toasted, remembering to shake the pan every now and then to avoid the pine nuts catching.  Finely chop the onions and crush the garlic, trim the broccoli in to little stems, rinse and roughly chop the spinach, cut the apricots into quarters and then set aside.

Place the dairy free butter and olive oil in a large, heavy based pan with lid and heat over a medium flame until melted and bubbling, then add the onions, garlic and spices to the pan, season well and fry gently, stirring occasionally, until the onions are soft.  Add the apricots and rice to the pan and stir together so that the rice becomes coated in the oil and spices.  Pour over the stock, cover and then bring to the boil.  Once boiling, turn the heat down to its lowest point and leave the rice to simmer, still covered, until the rice has absorbed all of the stock – about 45 minutes.

Five minutes before the end of cooking time, lift the lid and layer the broccoli over the top of the pilaf, re-cover and leave to finish cooking.  Once cooked, take the pilaf off the heat, add the sliced spinach and peas, re-cover and leave to stand undisturbed for 5 minutes. Next, gently stir in sultanas and pine nuts and carefully fold all of the ingredients together and serve.