Happy New Year
Haha! Strip Salad: That got your attention, didn’t it? However, the salad gets its name from the strips of carrot, strips of potato peel, and, often, strips of cucumber. I didn’t peel strips of cucumber this time, but it’s easy to do and looks pretty mingled with the carrot strips. A salad should look inviting, shouldn’t it? Cutting the veggies in fun ways is one of the techniques to achieve an interesting presentation. So, I decided to demonstrate the method of scoring the cucumber’s peel with a fork to make "floret" slices with pretty scalloped edges.
This salad is really simple; it has only a few ingredients and takes only a few minutes to prepare. The super crunchy potato peel strips elevate it above the ordinary, so it’s a great idea to serve this salad on special occasions, like New Year’s Day!
You can serve strip salad as a starter (Italian style) or simply as a side to the main meal. Whichever way you decide to serve it, it's bound to be a hit. The crispy potato peel strips are nicer than croutons, and, yay, they’re gluten-free as well.
Ingredients
- Punnet of cherry tomatoes 🍅
- small, crisp cucumber 🥒
- Medium carrots 🥕
- Handful of olives 🫒
- small red or white onion 🧅 (or 3 spring onions)
- small green pepper
- Vegan feta crumbs (optional)
- 2-3 potatoes 🥔 , peeled
- Vegetable oil (don’t use olive oil because it fails to crisp up the peels)
- Garlic 🧄 powder
- Red chilli 🌶 flakes
- Salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste.
Method
Wash the potato peels and dry by laying them over a clean dish towel and patting them dry
Grease a baking tray. Pile the peels onto the tray and sprinkle them with a teaspoon each of chilli flakes and garlic powder. Add salt and pepper to taste. Then add 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil. Mix the spices and oil into the peels.
Lay the peels in a single layer over the baking tray. Pop into the oven at 190 degrees Celsius for 8-10 minutes. (Check up on your peels regularly to ensure that they don’t burn or over-brown. You wanted golden brown, crispy bits)
While the potato peels roast, slice and dice the veggies 🍅 in artistic fashion. Use a vegetable peeler to peel off curly strips of carrot. Slice half the cucumber into strips. Score the peel of the other half of the cucumber using a fork and slice, thinly into florets. Halve the tomatoes and slice the onion thinly. Slice the green pepper into thin strips.
Add all the veggies to an interesting serving dish and sprinkle with vegan feta crumbles (if so desired). At this point you can add a sprinkle of diced basil or coriander leaves (if it’s to your taste)
Dress the salad lightly : combine 1 tablespoon of vegetable oil with ½ a teaspoon each of chilli flakes and garlic. Add salt and pepper to taste.
When the potato peels are golden brown and crispy, drain on kitchen paper and serve with the strip salad. Sprinkle the crispy bits over the salad in increments enduring that they do not wilt in the salad dressing.
Enjoy 😉