Hiya Feeder gang!
Like most people in the UK, I have been suffering in the heatwave this week. I love summer’s energy, but my favourite temperature is 21°C with a light breeze, and this year we seem to have hopped straight from wooly jumpers to heatstroke, skipping this milder zone entirely. Though it seems like we are over the worst of it (for now!!), it is still going to be pretty hot for the rest of this week, so I thought I would give you some recipes for things that don’t require cooking much, can be eaten at ambient temperatures, but still feel like actual meals? I don’t know about you, but I generally see salads as sides. They need to be bulked out with quite a lot of croutons or beans or grilled chicken for me to see them a proper dinner.
In this week’s newsletter, we have a green goddess chicken wedge salad, as well as a roasted pepper and burrata pasta and cold crab and tomato soba noodles. All of them are meals that make me actually look forward to cooking in 30 degree heat rather than falling back on picky bits, which is saying something. Don’t get me wrong, I also eat a lot of picky bits, but sometimes a short stint in the kitchen to give you a real dinner is still what you need.
Over on The Rest-ipes, I’m going to be talking about the best two meals I’ve had out this year in London (which both happened to be in the last week - lucky me!), as well as the lowdown on how to make a good quiche, and which my favourite ice lollies are.
As ever, one recipe will be available for free, and the rest is for the paid subscribers. Come and join the party if you’d like to give it a read!
Enjoy!
Sophie x
As I mentioned in today’s introduction, for a salad to feel like an actual meal to me, it has to be bulked out with things that will fill me up. In this case, I’m using chicken, dressed in a punchy, creamy green goddess dressing, the base of which is a really zingy green chilli chutney made with coriander, mint, green chillies and lots of lime juice. Iceberg lettuce doesn’t taste of a lot, so topping the wedges with punchy flavour is a dream. What iceberg does bring to the party, though, is very satisfying crunch.
Serves 2 as a main, 4 as a side
½ banana shallot
2 limes
1 green chilli
1 small clove of garlic
30g coriander, plus a few extra leaves for serving
15g mint leaves
1 ripe avocado
100g yoghurt
50g mayonnaise
300g cooked chicken
1 iceberg lettuce
75g feta
2 tbsp nigella seeds
salt and neutral oil
Finely slice your shallot into rounds. Add it to a small bowl, squeeze over the juice of ½ lime and a pinch of salt. Leave it to pickle a little.
Roughly chop your green chilli and peel your garlic. Add the coriander (stalks and all), mint leaves, green chilli, garlic and the juice of the remaining 1 ½ limes to the blender, along with 50ml neutral oil and 2 tbsp water. Blend until smooth, then season to taste with salt. Remove 3 tbsp, and set aside in another bowl.
Halve the avocado, remove the stone and scoop out the flesh with a spoon. Add the avocado to the green blender mixture along with ½ the yoghurt, then blend again until smooth.
Spoon the mixture into a bowl, and mix in the remaining 50g yoghurt and mayonnaise. Adjust the seasoning if needed.
Shred up the cooked chicken and add it to the creamy green sauce. Mix to combine.
Take any ratty leaves off the outside of the iceberg, then slice off the woody end, keeping the stalk intact. Cut the iceberg into quarters, then halve each of these to give you 8 small wedges.
Arrange the wedges on a serving platter. Dollop over the green chicken mixture, then drizzle over the extra green sauce. Scatter over the shallots, crumble over the feta and sprinkle the nigella seeds, as well as some extra coriander leaves. Serve it up.
It is a tale as old as time, but pesto pasta in a heatwave is always a good idea. I like this one especially as it relies mostly on things you can find in the cupboard, so schlepping to the shops in ridiculous temperatures doesn’t have to happen. Saying that, perhaps you’ll have to pop to the supermarket to get the burrata, but at least it gives you a nice excuse to go and hang out in the chiller aisles.
This is one of those dishes that you could make with your eyes closed, but the burrata makes it feel indulgent and sexy. It could be a midweek dinner, or you could cook it up for friends coming round on the weekend. You can eat it hot, but it also really works at room temperature, which is how I like to eat it at this time of year.
Disclaimer - I normally do 100g of pasta per person, but I’ve done slightly less in this one, just because I certainly find that my appetite is slightly reduced when I’m hot and bothered. Serve it with good bread and a big salad too if you want to bulk things out some more.
Serves 4
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