Food and lifestyle with a dusting of magic
Summer is here, the sun is shining and the schools are off. Summer is a time for long lazy days, rediscovering the garden and having days out. Recently the weather has been really warm. It is lovely to have sunshine but I always find that I am never very hungry when it is warm. On hot days a salad always goes down well. They are light and refreshing and perfect on a sunny day.
Recently I have been trying to think of ideas to use up the raspberries in my garden. The sunny weather has brought an abundance of raspberries, I am picking loads of them every day. I love raspberries and am happy to eat them straight off the cane. I have also been baking with them, I tried Edd Kimber’s Mixed Berry Traybake which was gorgeous. I also came up with Raspberry and Elderflower nests which are a lovely summery dessert. I did wonder if I could add them into a salad to add a burst of flavour and this weekend I tried a Chicken and Raspberry salad.
For the salad leaves I used a pack of Florette Duo Lambs lettuce and ruby chard. I find these bags of salad very handy for adding a variety of leaves to a salad without having loads left. One bag is perfect for two or three people. I mixed the salad leaves with red onion, raspberries and barbecue chicken slices and mixed it up to create a colourful salad. For the dressing I made a mustard and tarragon salad dressing and added it over the top.
I have to admit I was really pleased with this colourful salad, the bite of the red onions complemented the sweetness of the raspberries perfectly. The chicken added a little flavour and the salad dressing brought out the flavour of the leaves. The chicken and raspberry salad would also be lovely served as a side dish at a barbecue as well as making an ideal light main dish on a hot day.
Disclosure: I was sent a recipe book, apron and voucher to buy some Florette in order to try it out.
Very nice. I love salads with fruit in, they make a really good packed lunch. I also like to add some crunchy texture such as nuts or croutons or broken up crispy noodles.
Good idea, I shall try some croutons next time although the onions were quite crunchy
This looks really good. I can be a bit funny about fruit in salads but I’m trying to overcome that as I think I’m missing out!
It actually works really well, I am going to have to experiment with other fruits
This looks like a perfect summer salad – both the flavour and colour combinations. I love the name of your blog too – very cute!
I would never have thought of putting raspberries into a salad but that looks delicious!
I only thought of it because I have so many in the garden this year, the suns brought them out. I was really pleased how at well it worked
What a nice combination of sweet and savoury flavours!
I love the combination of meat and fruit in salads – crispy lardons and nectarines are brilliant over a fresh salad!
That sounds nice, I shall have to give that a try
What a beautiful summery salad! Love the combination of meat with berries.
I love the colours in this salad, it looks so vibrant and bright. It sounds just perfect to eat in this summer heat.
I love the colours on this – it looks so fresh and yum! Thanks for linking up to #recipeoftheweek – sorry I’m a bit late over! Have Pinned this post and scheduled in a tweet. New linky just went live for this week 🙂 x
Thank you, will nip over and have a look