I’ve never tried recipe boxes before and despite my reservations about the cost, I thought I’d give the Abel & Cole Super Salad Box a whirl.  They are designed to provide the ingredients for 2 main course seasonal salads for 2 people (or enough for 4 side salads). In my delivery were the ingredients for a Grilled Fennel & Leek Salad with Olives, lemon and buckwheat and also a Caramelised Purple Carrot, Chickpea & Chilli Salsa Salad. The box contains exactly the right amount of ingredients for each recipe with the exception of salt/pepper & oil.

I first tackled the fennel and leek salad and carefully followed the enclosed recipe leaflet. It gave an estimated prep/cooking time of 30 minutes and this was about right. I dutifully griddled my veg and boiled my buckwheat and whilst they were cooking chopped parsley, garlic and olives and mixed them together with lemon juice and the tablespoon of wholegrain mustard supplied in a little packet. It looked good – very similar to the image on the recipe leafet. But then came the moment of testing – yeuch!

It was really unpleasant as a result of the harshness of the mustard dressing and I very nearly didn’t eat it. I was so disappointed with the result – and of course had used all the ingredients and so had enough for another portion the following day. I was sorely tempted to chuck the lot in the bin but instead packed the remains into my lunchtub for the next day.  However, whether by accident or subconcious design I managed to leave it at home the next day and so was forced (!) to buy a jacket potato with tuna mayo for my lunch.  But in the evening it looked reproachfully at me from within its tub and being averse to waste I decided I would have to eat it as an accompaniment to my pan fried trout.  So I steeled myself expecting the worst only to discover that the flavour had completely changed in the intervening 24 hours.  The harshness of the dressing had mellowed and there was no pungent acidity as there had been. The resulting salad (served at room temp) was actually rather tasty and the mustard dressing simply gave a bit of an oomph to the flavours of the veg and the buckwheat.  If I were to make it again I would taste the mustard first and blend it very carefully with the other strong flavours of garlic and lemon.

The other salad I made as an accompaniment to a veggie chilli I made for a few family and friends who gathered in my new house to wish my daughter farewell as she headed off to India for a couple of months. I roasted the carrots and chick peas the evening before the gathering which would have been fine had I then not forgotten I had left them on a baking tray in the oven.  When I heated the oven for something else the following afternoon I suddenly remembered they were there. They weren’t black but they were definitely well done and the chickpeas a little scorched.  I hesitated about serving them but I’d already chopped and mixed the coriander with the carrot tops plus garlic and chilli and oil so I threw it altogether and put it in a bowl on the table at the same time as serving up the nachos.  I have no idea what it tasted like as before I had found a serving spoon in the kitchen the guests had piled into the nachos and had their hands in my carrot salad and were eating it with their fingers! It was declared a success despite the overcooking = so will definitely give this one another go.