Recipe: Berry Merry Christmas Salad

This is a pretty salad, all dressed up for a party in a champagne berry vinaigrette. A lovely, quick and easy salad that is perfect for the festive season.

 Serves 8

Dairy Free, Gluten Free, Vegan

Berry Vinaigrette 

125 g fresh strawberries roughly chopped

3 tbsp Champagne Vinegar or White Balsamic Vinegar

1½ tbsp caster sugar

1 tbsp fresh lemon juice

3 tbsp olive oil

A pinch of salt and freshly ground black pepper

Salad

3 cups (120g) rocket

1 cup (40g) fresh basil, leaves picked

125g fresh strawberries, green top removed, quartered.

½ telegraph cucumber, diced

500g ripe heirloom tomatoes, core removed, cut into bite sized wedges

½ cup (60g) pomegranate seeds

1 punnet of micro herbs with edible flowers

To prepare the vinaigrette: place all the ingredients into a bowl and blend well using a stick blender.

To prepare the salad: in a large serving bowl or platter, combine the rocket, basil, strawberries, cucumber and tomatoes with ½ the pomegranate seeds and micro herbs.

Drizzle over some of the dressing and top with the remaining micro herbs and pomegranate seeds.

Serve with the remaining dressing on the side.

Berry Merry Christmas salad comes from RIPE RECIPES: A Third Helping, the third cookbook to come from this very popular Auckland deli

It would make a wonderful gift for those who need some new ideas for easy weekday meals but who also enjoy spending time creating more indulgent recipes for special occasions.

RIPE RECIPES: A Third Helping is by Angela Redfern and the Ripe Deli team, Photographs by Sally Greer. Beatnik Publishing, RRP $60.00, www.beatnikshop.com

Reviews by Lyn Potter

Parent and grandparent, Avid traveler, writer & passionate home cook

Read more by Lyn here.