As the weather turns cooler during Autumn, I find normal salads a little too frigid (and somewhat unsatisfying) for my liking. After a long Saturday morning sleep-in, it was a late busy Friday night at the restaurant afterall, I woke up restricted to work with what I had in the fridge – the results were a little more complex than expected but the mélange of flavours and textures worked very well.

Warm Salad of Asparagus, Oyster mushrooms with ‘Zucchini chips’

Ingredients:
Baby roma tomatos: half lightly grilled in oven, other half thinly sliced, for a combination of sweetness and texture
Young asparagus (fresh from the grower’s markets) cooked with olive oil and and a drizzle of aged balsamic
Oyster mushrooms, shredded, wok tossed in rice bran oil, mirin and seasame oil
Zucchini ‘chips’: lay flat on baking paper, rubbed with sea salt and brush with extra virgin olive oil. Grill in fan forced oven for 5 minutes and allow to rest until crispy
2 organic eggs, over easy with a liquid yolk.
Carrot – Julienned
Baby salad leaves with Japanese wafu goma dressing.

Oyster mushrooms can be replaced with Chicken
The crispy zucchini chips really added to the charm of the texture. The soft running yolk complemented the asparagus (shame I didn’t have any truffles). The oven grilled tomatos exploded with juice upon bite while the raw tomatos were cool and fresh against the salad leaves. Oyster mushrooms are a great alternative for vegetarians as its texture is a quite similar to meat… in a ’stringy’ nature.

Voila, Lunch!
Our checklist: low carb, low calorie, wheat free, gluten free, diary free, vegetarian – most of all, edible AND enjoyable!

Like my post? Spread it like butter!