Cilantro Strawberry Salad

Cilantro Strawberry Salad

I'm still basking in the remembered warmth of the other evening.  Today was icy cold again, although the sun was shining.  Plants are still sitting meekly in the greenhouse, but they may get to come out tomorrow.  We'll see.  Meanwhile, here's a summery cooling salad that charmingly accompanies a spicy main course, like the masala salmon we barbecued on a cedar plank on that glorious warm evening.  This salad is refreshing, quick and easy.

Core strawberries with a small knife.

15 large strawberries, husked, cored and diced into quarter inch cubes
2 tablespoons very finely diced red onion
15 stalks fresh cilantro
10 fresh mint leaves
fresh grated pepper
1 teaspoon almond oil
1 organic lemon, juiced

Combine the strawberries with onion. Using scissors, snip off the bottom ends of the cilantro stalks, then snip the remaining stalks and leaves into small pieces over the strawberries. Roll the mint leaves up (to get them into a bundle) then use scissors to snip them into very thin strips, over the strawberries.  Drizzle the oil over and then the lemon juice.  Grate the pepper over to taste, and toss and serve immediately.

To add a bit of knockout here, you could add some very finely chopped chilli, but that might be a cruel trick to play on someone who believes this salad will cool their smoking mouth.  But it would be awfully good, wouldn’t it?