As a school teacher, lunch is often a rushed affair to prepare – you want it to be relatively fresh by the time you eat it, but you don’t want to have to spend time preparing it in the morning. This is especially true if like me you are getting to work extremely early – You want as much time as possible to get prepared, not making a complex lunch. The go-to is often a sandwich, but I’m not a fan of basic sandwiches – either I buy a good one or I don’t eat it!
Salads would tend to be my preferred choice, but the choice can be a little constricted – the amount of times I’ve eaten a salad of lettuce, tomato and cucumber and olives. Not bad, but slightly pedestrian after the hundredth time. I’m always looking out for more interesting salads, and eating this one at a school function, I knew I’d found what I was looking for.
Blueberries and pecans contrast with the saltiness of the feta cheese and the tang of a balsamic reduction. Mixed in with lettuce of your choice this forms a delicious and unusual choice of salad for a lovely lunchbox. I have also bulked this out with potato gnocchi for a more substantial meal.
The recipe is deliberately vague – no-one likes measuring out ingredients first thing! Aim for equal amounts of all the ingredients and you wont go far wrong in constructing it.
Blueberry, Pecan and Feta Salad
Ingredients:
- 1 handful feta cheese
- 1 handful pecan nuts
- 1 handful blueberries
- 1 handful lettuce (mixed leaves work best)
- 4 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 handful potato gnocchi
Instructions:
Boil the potato gnocchi according to the instructions, if required. Wash the lettuce and blueberries and place in a bowl with the pecan nuts and chunks of feta cheese. Mix with the potato gnocchi. Reduce the balsamic vinegar over a low heat and drizzle over the salad before serving.
The Wayfaring Baker 