Currabinny Cooks: A lighter take on chicken caesar salad

Plus steak salad with a chimichurri sauce and bitter leaves with pancetta

Grilled chicken salad with lettuce and herby yoghurt dressing. 

Up the garden, right at the back, under a few old trees, that is where the vegetable patch has always been. Here in our seaside, salt-saturated, windy patch of land, growing can be a challenge. Our patch is sheltered somewhat by the house and the trees which surround it. The trees conveniently leave a nice gap above the raised beds for whatever sun we get. Currently, there is a small greenhouse, four good, raised beds made with some leftover decking, six old fish boxes, repurposed as planters and two big barrels just for potatoes.

The spot of warm weather we had recently enticed us to start early with our planting. Originally, we had planned to sow our seeds straight into the beds and planters (we did this last year on our rooftop in Dublin to surprisingly good results). Luckily, one of us caught word on the radio of a looming cold spell, some arctic chill coming down from the north, so instead, we created a little nursery of small pots in the greenhouse. Just two days later the earliest signs of tiny green shoots welcomed me when I ventured up there to do a little watering. It was mustard, which is pretty much always the first thing to grow.