Sweet Potato and Sausage Salad with Garlic Scape Kefir Dressing

Borne out of necessity (and fridge contents), this salad was a triumph! I had some farmer's sausage that I sliced and fried until brown and yummy. Then I cubed and steamed some sweet potato until it was cooked. I then sauteed it in some butter until it went brown and caramelly.

For the dressing I simply whizzed up a few garlic scapes and kefir together in the food processor. If you don't have kefir, just use plain yogurt. I then seasoned the dressing really well.

To serve - I washed and dried a big pile of fresh mesclun from the farmer's market and then put the sausage and sweet potato on top. A drizzle of the dressing finished it up. I was quite tempted to lick the bowl when we were done.

Sesame Coleslaw

This is a nice twist on the heavy, creamy coleslaw that we are more familiar with.

Choose your coleslaw - shread cabbage and carrot, buy ready shredded, or try broccoli slaw!

Now dress is with some homemade balsamic dressing. Meanwhile, toast some sesame seeds in a dry pan. They'll look like the pic below. Toss them through and enjoy!

Vietnamese Turkey Salad

When you cook a 21 lb turkey plus all the trimmings for 3 adults there are bound to be leftovers. In fact, boundless leftovers is a fairly apt description...

We always cook a really large bird because I love turkey and I love dreaming up new things to do with the leftovers. Here's a new post-holiday staple that is modified from Nigella Lawson's Feast cookbook. Basically, it's a coleslaw with a nam pla prik type dressing. Nam pla prik is a ubiquitous mix of fish sauce, lime and chilli that is found in Vietnam and Thailand.

What you'll need:

• 3 Tbs rice vinegar
• juice of 1 lime
• 4 Tbs Fish Sauce (Squid brand is the best, but any will do)
• 3 Tbs Sesame Oil
• 1 clove garlic
• 2 tsp grated palm sugar or brown sugar
• 2 red birdseye chillis 
• Cilantro - about 1/3 bunch, chopped
• 3 Spring Onions (green onions)
• Half a small Red Cabbage
• 4-5 Red Radishes
• 4-5 cups chopped turkey meat - white meat is perfect here because it will drink up the dressing!

 Crush or mince the garlic and add it to the finely chopped red chillis. Add the lime juice, sugar, fish sauce, vinegar, oil and mix together. Now chop up your spring onions and add them, along with the turkey. At this point you can put it in the fridge until you're almost ready to serve. When you're good to go, shred the cabbage as finely as you can, cut the radishes into rounds and add them to the turkey mixture, along with the cilantro. Toss really well and serve! My husband loves this dish and can't get enough of it.

Simple Summer Pasta Salad

This is one of my favorites; a perfect salad for a summer evening or to bring to a BBQ. My mom has been making this salad for years and it has been a hit at a ton of parties; she has adapted it from a cooking course she took when I was small. It can easily be doubled for large parties, and is adaptable to taste (for those who do not like onions, use less, for example):
To start, cook one 350 g package of cheese tortellini (fresh) as per package directions. While you are doing this, chop the vegetables:

You will need:
half of a sweet onion,
half of an English cucumber,
a handful of basil (fresh is key!)
a hothouse tomato.
Dice all your veggies as you are waiting for the tortellini to cool.
Now you can make your dressing:

Start with a quarter of a cup of olive oil and slowly add approximately 3 tablespoons of balsamic vinegar. This is purely to taste, so taste away!! Whisk, add a pinch of pepper and salt to taste (I like it with more salt, sometimes I add more at the end but take it slow).

Now mix everything up and pour on dressing! It is nice to marinate and cool this salad for an hour as it tastes best cold. A perfect side to any dish!