Monday Meals: Not-So-Simple Salad & Sweet Potato Chips

So it's actually hot outside now. When it gets to this time of the year, I usually go into an uncharacteristic desire to lay off the carbs and eat only things that refresh me - Princess Tomatophobe is out in force. Less princessy is the fact that it's still me who has to cook after getting home from a long day at work, and so the notion of making something that's just as effortless and quick as it is refreshing and nutritious is one that circles frequently in my sun-addled mind.

Queue the idea for the most simple dinner in the world - sweet potato chips served with a big, gorgeous salad. That's it. Because that is simple, right?

Right?

So why does it take me at least an hour to make?!

A multi-ingrediental meal is one where those multi-ingredients need multi-washing, multi-prepping, multi-etc. The most innocent of salad ingredients are crafty enough to make you work for their goodness - I double checked this, because I made another version of the salad a week after the first, to confirm it wasn't me being ridiculously slow. I guess that's still up for debate, but the hypothesis has been tested.

That said - this is still a BEAUTIFUL thing to eat of a summer's evening, and I encourage you all to go and make it - today - now. But if you're rushed for time, maybe make it tomorrow instead.

I'm putting both salad examples below because the process is the same - one had kale and beetroot for a more earthy experience and the other had rocket and radish for something more zingy. To be honest, you can mix and replace the ingredients as you see fit - maybe blue cheese instead of feta, or butterbeans insetad of chickpeas - hell, throw in the whole lot and more if you're making the salad for several people (or plan to have a multi-portional experience of your own).

Not-So-Simple Salad & Sweet Potato Chips

1) Cut the sweet potatoes into chip shapes, and put them in a boiling pan for 5 mins. You don't want to overdo this, as they'll go mushy if you boil them for too long. Drain, and pour into a roasting dish. Dust with paprika, cayenne, rosemary and olive oil, toss it all about, and roast in a preheated oven (about 180C) for half an hour, or until nice and crispy.

2) Make the salad. First put the rocket, kale or whatever your base leaf is in a big bowl. Then the following order of what you put in doesn't really matter, but I always do it order of least messy to most messy - as remember, you're chopping as you go. That's celery, then radish if using, then chickpeas (or your desired bean), then walnuts (or your desired nut), then beetroot if using, then the cheese, then the avocado. Squeeze over half a lemon and give it a lovely big mix.

3) Make the dressing - in a cup, spoon your yoghurt, mustard and vinegar. Mix well and taste to see if you need to add a little extra of anything. This makes a beautifully creamy but LOW FAT dressing, and is one of my favourite, most simple inventions.

4). You're done. How did all that take an hour?!

Of course - it's been insinuated before and I'm fairly certain it will be again that I am not the fastest of movers. I'd be interested to know what time everyone else takes - from the very first peel of the potato right up to the second the dressing is poured over the salad. The race is on. Go!

Served: two people on the night with the chips, but the salad then lasted me for lunch for the next two days.
Took: It honestly took me about an hour. I know, I know...
Things that went wrong: when I told myself I'd be sitting down soon.

Diabetic Friendly Lemonade

A few years back, when I lived in Brooklyn, I was returning some camera equipment to an Iranian TV presenter (this was the kind of life I lived. Sigh) and she offered me some lemonade, because it was the hottest summer the city had seen in 10 years and I think my pale skin looked pretty flustered after lugging the equipment up the L Train and then getting a little bit lost.

What she gave me, and kindly even filled in an empty water bottle for me to take away, was this homemade concoction of wonder: water, freshly squeezed lemons, mint, ice and cinnamon sugar. This simple mix travelled much further with me than back down the L Train (not least because I kept refilling the old bottle with the used mint and lemons in it for at least 2 weeks - gross but it worked) - it's also travelled round in my mind for years since. My plight has been the cinnamon sugar, which I am STILL YET TO FIND. But this is not necessarily a bad thing.

As a diabetic, I probably shouldn't be dedicating my time to finding sugar. I don't want to confuse people - I'm a Type 1, which means sometimes I physically need sugar (something which a lot of people don't seem to understand), but it's not really something I should be consuming as often as I do water. So the other day, I was just staring at my spice rack (I do this sometimes) and my two little sticks of cinnamon basically jumped into my face and started saying 'Lemonade! Lemonade!'. The obvious answer was a long time coming. If I just replaced the cinnamon sugar with natural cinnamon bark, I would still get the unique taste of this wondrous marriage of ingredients - and in a Diabetic Friendly way, too. Cinnamon's even been reported recently to lower bloodsugar, so double score.

Here is how I made this beautifully simple but necessary-to-life drink:

Diabetic Friendly Lemonade

1) I like using a good aesthetic carafe for stuff like this - but any old jug will do. Fill your chosen vessel with ice - lots of it, and squeeze the juice of each of your lemon quarters over it. Then chuck in the squeezed lemons with the ice.

2) Add your mint and cinnamon. Give it a slight mix, then at this point, add the agave syrup if desired. I used this because it's really low in sugar compared to - um - sugar, and other alternatives like honey and golden syrup. It's got about 7g carb per serving, so if you divvy that serving up in regards to your whole carafe, you're really only getting a few grams of sugar. But please - it is honestly just as nice without this, just slightly zingier.

3) Fill with water. Mix. Place the jug in the sunshine and take a moment to admire your work. Even if you DID use any old jug, this is still something that's just beautiful to look at. It's better if you let it infuse for a little while, but you probably won't be able to wait for this, so enjoy a little glass to start with.

(I love the way the ingredients just naturally separated themselves - cinnamon at the bottom, mint taking the middle and lemons owning the top, like it was some colourful, aesthetic agreement.)

It goes without saying, this is perfect for summer eves such as these (although as I'm writing this, it's started thundering down with rain. I'm definitely not living abroad any more, am I). It's great if you're trying to cut down on alcohol a bit - I find that when I get home after a long, hot day, I really do enjoy an ice cold beer or a cider, and this fills that gap just nicely if you don't want to do that every single day. Although - the lemonade would also be AWESOME with a bit of gin or whisky thrown in, winky face.