Old-fashioned Irish salad
This simple, old fashioned salad can be quite delicious when it’s made with a crisp lettuce, good home-grown tomatoes and cucumbers, free-range eggs and home preserved beetroot
SERVES
2
PEOPLE
PREP TIME
10
MINUTES
COOKING TIME
10
MINUTES
Ingredients
Fresh watercress or butterhead
Lettuce
2 hard-boiled eggs, preferably free-range, quartered
2-4 tomatoes, quartered
16 slices of cucumber
4 slices pickled beetroot
4 tiny scallions or spring onions
2-4 sliced radishes
Chopped parsley
To serve:
Salad cream
Method
Hard-boil the eggs for the salad. Bring a small saucepan of water to the boil, gently slide in the eggs, boil for 10 minutes (12 if they are very fresh), strain off the hot water and cover with cold water. Peel when cold. Wash and dry the lettuce and scallions.
To assemble the salads: Arrange a few lettuce leaves on each of 4 plates. Scatter a few quartered tomatoes and 2 hard-boiled egg quarters, a few slices of cucumber and 1 radish or 2 slices of beetroot on each plate. Garnish with spring onion and watercress, scatter the remaining egg white (from the dressing) over the salad and chopped parsley.
Put a tiny bowl of salad cream in the centre of each plate and serve immediately while the salad is crisp and before the beetroot starts to run.
