Summery Salad

Submitted by Zurie

"Cool and delicious, colourful, and choc full of vitamins and minerals. Try not to use substitutions. I explain about the cheese in the Directions. I'm not giving a recipe for the vinaigrette dressing, because if you like salads you'll have your own favourite dressing to use. Amounts are NOT precise. I've made this two night running now although it's winter, because it's so tasty."

 

• Ready In: 15mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 4

ingredients

• 1 cup small plum tomato (grape tomatoes)
• 1 cup English cucumbers or 1 cup israeli cucumber, in bite-sized pieces
• 1 cup onions, preferably sweet onion or 1 cup red onion, chopped
• 1 yellow bell pepper, seeded, ribs removed, in bite sized pieces
• 1⁄2 cup black kalamata olive, pips removed and halved
• 1⁄2 cup arugula, pushed in or 1/2 cup flat leaf parsley, chopped
• 3 1⁄2 ounces soft fresh goat cheese (note below) or 3 1/2 ounces jersey milk cheese (note below)
• fresh ground black pepper
• good salad dressing, preferably made with extra-virgin olive oil and cider vinegar

directions

1. ** Because I'm in South Africa, I am never sure whether the same ingredients can be found elsewhere. We get soft, creamy 100g packaged goats' cheese in little logs, and recently also Jersey milk cream cheese logs. I prefer those flavoured with herbs, or with black pepper, or garlic and parsley. You could substitute ricotta, but it's not as flavourful.
2. Rinse and prepare everything.
3. The cheese will crumble, and if you use those specified, it'll be very soft when you mix it in and add to the general flavour mix.
4. If you only have strong onions, you might want to use less.
5. Put all the ingredients in a plastic mixing bowl first, season with the pepper, and mix in just enough salad dressing to coat the ingredients lightly.
6. Carefully "decant" into a pretty salad bowl.
7. This will be 4 generous side servings with dinner, or 2 - 3 lunch servings with fresh, crusty Continental-style bread.