Asian Mackerel Salad

Firstly, I wanted to apologise if I have been a little quiet lately. For the past two weeks I have been on holiday in the beautiful country of Portugal, eating far more Pasteis de Nata and sardines than I care to admit. On a side note, if you are ever in the Lisbon area make sure you go to Pastéis de Belém. And if you have never had a Pasteis de Nata, make sure you try them. You will not be disappointed. 

Anyway I wanted to write a small section on salad. Before you roll your eyes and  throw your laptop across the room, hear me out. 

It was hot, and my best friend was hangry. You know, snapping at me whilst telling me quite melodramatically that he might faint if he did not get fed soon. Of course, at this point he did not appreciate it when I pointed out that it had only been a few hours since he had last eaten and actually, unfortunately many people have and do last a lot longer without food.  We wanted something healthy but filling, and in 34 degree heat a cold salad seemed right up our street. We found a cool health food cafe ( ever noticed how they seem to be popping up everywhere?) and ordered what sounded like a delicious wholesome salad. Unfortunately what we were served ended up being a bland and boring pile of dehydrated disinterested vegetables. It reminded me of everything that people imagine healthy food to taste like. Tasteless and dull.  Which we all know it is not.

So I thought I would put together my super-duper Asian mackerel salad recipe for a bit of inspiration to anyone who needs a crazy good, easy and relatively reasonably cheap salad to “beet” the summer heat.

This salad is super healthy, super easy and a big crowd-pleaser. It's all about the different textures and the dressing which is incredible! Use as a wholesome main or a delightful side. Serves 2 as a main with leftovers and costs roughly £8.

Ingredients:

For the salad:

2  x pre- cooked  mackerel fillets (marinated if desired)

Small bunch of chopped  coriander for garnish

1 red pepper, sliced

1 x 150g bag of leafy vegetable of your choice ( I use lambs or mixed lettuce)

1 x 250g bag of cherry tomatoes, halved

For the dressing:

1 tbs honey

3 tbsp soy sauce

Juice of 1 lime 

1 medium chilli

2 tsp fish sauce

2 spring onions chopped 

1/2 thumb of ginger
1 tbs sesame oil
1tsp fish sauce (optional)

Method:

Chop all the vegetables and mix into a salad. To create the dressing, Method:

Chop all the vegetables and mix into a salad. To create the dressing, put your heaviest items in first with your salt which in this case is soy sauce and add your honey, chilli and fish sauce. Then add your lime juice and your sesame oil and shake all ingredients together. Add all your other dressing ingredients and taste and add a little more lime juice, and anything else you think your dressing needs a bit more of.  Shake again and voila!   It’s all about balancing sweet and sour – bearing in mind most oils are naturally sweet.