Zora’s Salad

Publishers Random House NZ have kindly given me permission to reproduce this recipe from Cook with Me by Aaron Brunet,(my current favourite cookbook), photography by Kieran Scott (incidentally there are more than 220 wonderful colour photographs in the book all taken by Kieran specifically for this title). Random House NZ - $49.99

Zora’s Salad

Serves: 4 | Prep time: 15 minutes

My mother Zora is without a doubt the ultimate champion salad maker. Having been vegetarian since she was old enough to choose, she’s learned a thing or two about making healthy, delicious food. 

Her Italian-Slovene upbringing really shows in her delight in growing her own fresh vegetables and using them to great effect. Mum always runs out to her garden to see what is ready to pick for that night. 

Even if it’s just fresh parsley or silverbeet, it makes a big difference to have something so fresh that it is bursting with life. What I’d like to do in this recipe is give you an idea of her thought process when she builds a salad.

1 cup chopped ripe tomato

handful of fresh basil

2 stems of parsley (and other fresh  
herbs if you have them, like oregano or chives)

salt

olive oil

1 cup white and/or red cabbage,  
very finely shredded

a few large lettuce leaves or a  
handful of small lettuce

1 capsicum (any colour), finely sliced

small bunch spinach, roughly chopped

1 leaf silverbeet, very thinly sliced   

on an angle

1 stick celery, thinly sliced on an angle

1 carrot, shaved into strips with  
a potato peeler

¼ telegraph cucumber, sliced
in half then on an angle

½ avocado (when in season),
  
peeled and sliced

6 cloves garlic, very finely minced

salt and cracked pepper to season

1 tablespoon lemon juice

1 tablespoon orange juice

1 teaspoon soy sauce

3 tablespoons olive oil

small handful fresh alfalfa sprouts

The main idea here is to use whatever salad vegetables you have in the garden, or are really fresh.

Rinse a big salad bowl. Add the tomato, basil and other herbs, then mix to combine and sprinkle with salt and a little olive oil.

Gradually add the rest of the vegetables, taking special care when cutting and preparing them. Think about how you can cut them finely enough that they will be easy to chew and release their flavour in each mouthful. Spinach is soft so it can be a little bigger. Celery needs to be thin or it requires too much chewing. Silverbeet is great sliced very thinly on an angle. Carrot is moist and juicy when peeled into strips, but tough and tiring when cut into rounds. Cucumber is great sliced on an angle and into bite-sized pieces.

Sprinkle your finely chopped garlic on top, then add a decent sprinkle of good salt and pepper. Splash the lemon and orange juice on top so that it washes the salt down through the salad, then add a little bit of soy sauce, and lastly a generous pour of good olive oil. Add the fresh sprouts and toss the salad well, gathering up the tomato and herb layer from the bottom. 

There should be enough dressing that a small pool is left on the bottom of the bowl — and our family tradition is to drink this at the end as almost a vitamin tonic!

Thanks for this Aaron, it is a truly wonderful recipe.I also love the recipe on the following page, Zora's Lentils.

And here are some wise words from Zora (left)

"Sometimes you have to be willing to change your thinking to embrace new things".