Recipes: Summer salads to brighten up any barbecue - Kem Ormond

Spiced pear and blue cheese salad. Photo / Kem Ormond

The Country’s Kem Ormond has a couple of salad recipes that are perfect for adding colour and flavour to your summer entertaining.

The barbecue’s fired up and the aroma of sizzling meat is in the air.

All that’s left to complete your meal is a couple of vibrant, seasonal salads.

Fresh, colourful and full of flavour, these dishes are the perfect complement to smoky, grilled mains.

Whether you’re feeding a crowd or just a few friends or family, these salads bring a burst of freshness to the table.

They are also easy to prepare and come together in no time.

Add a bit of excitement to your summer break with my spiced pear and blue cheese salad.

Or if you’re feeling adventurous, try the watermelon and prawn salad.

Spiced pear and blue cheese salad

Ingredients

3 cups of red wine

1 cup brown sugar

2 whole cinnamon quills

3 star anise

5 cloves

4 pieces of lemon peel

8 small pears peeled - if using a tin of whole baby petite pears, you will only need to cook these for 10-15 minutes. I get these from a specialised Mediterranean shop, but if using your own pears, cook until just tender.

120g green leaf salad – I use a mixture from my garden (baby beet leaves, lettuce, etc).

100g blue cheese crumbled

¼ cup of toasted hazelnuts coarsely chopped

Your favourite vinaigrette dressing, or you can just use some nice virgin olive oil and red wine vinegar.

Method

Place the wine, sugar, star anise, cinnamon, cloves and lemon peel into a large saucepan, stirring over a medium heat until the sugar is dissolved.

Place the pears into a pot, adding extra water to cover. Bring to a simmer.

Cover the pears with a circle of baking paper.

Cook until tender – this could take up to 40 minutes, depending on pear size.

Remove the pears from the liquid, increase the heat to medium and reduce the liquid for 20 minutes until it is reduced to a quarter and looks a little syrupy.

Place the salad leaves on a flat platter.

Top with quartered pears, crumble the blue cheese over the top and scatter with the hazelnuts.

Drizzle with the reduced dressing or use your own.

Serves 4

Watermelon and prawn salad

Watermelon and prawn salad. Photo / Kem Ormond

Feta and watermelon are a match made in heaven. They complement each other beautifully!

This is a refreshing summer salad with a twist.

Ingredients

400g raw peeled prawns with the tails still on

800g peeled watermelon deseeded

2 tbsp olive oil

1 small red onion, sliced thinly

1 fennel bulb sliced thinly and the fronds reserved

120g feta cheese, crumbled

2 handfuls of mixed salad greens

Dressing

3 tbsp olive oil

1 tsp Worcestershire sauce

1 tbsp lemon or lime juice

1 tsp Dijon mustard

1 clove crushed garlic

Pinch chilli flakes or some finely chopped chilli

Freshly ground black pepper and sea salt (I sometimes crush some pink peppercorns to replace black ones)

Method

To make the dressing, put all the ingredients in a bowl and season.

Cut watermelon into small triangles and check that you have taken out all the seeds.

Heat oil in a pan and sauté the prawns until just pink, then season.

Arrange watermelon on the plate and top with the remaining ingredients and drizzle with the dressing, and decorate with the fennel fronds.

Serves 4