Roasted Tamarillo Salad with Chunky Feta Dressing

So tamarillos have the sheer nerve to not be in season that long so I want to cook, bake and generally experiment with them as much as I can. I’m sorry if you don’t have them in your ‘neck of the woods’ because they are delish! They aren’t everyones cup of tea as they can be very sour so adding sugar is a must, but I adore them. 🙂

I created this salad around them. I roasted the tamarillos, candied walnuts, grilled bacon and added orange wedges and spring onions to some gorgeous looking fancy lettuce and made a absolutely delicious chunky feta dressing with natural yoghurt (which is bordering on being tzatziki) to compliment it. The ‘man’ doesn’t usually like fruit in salads and even he enjoyed it! Actually I’ve come across a few people who don’t enjoy fruit in salads or even on pizzas, i.e, apricots on a chicken pizza. I don’t understand,  each to their own of course but I personally like it, fruit adds another texture and beautiful colours and flavours to a salad or savoury dish.

There’s a small amount of prep with the tamarillos taking the longest but the rest is quick and you can get this whole salad, including the dressing ready the night before (actually the dressing is even tastier after being chilled for the night) and just construct it on the day.

 

INGREDIENTS

DRESSING
1/2 cup natural, unsweetened yoghurt
2 tablespoons medium or light olive oil
1 tablespoon lemon juice
1 small clove garlic
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cracked pepper
125 grams feta (1/2 a cup when crumbled)

SALAD
4 medium or large tamarillos
1/3 cup brown sugar
2 oranges
3/4 cup walnut halves
2 teaspoons butter
6 pieces streaky bacon
1 large spring onion (or 2 small)
8 large handfuls of fancy lettuce (a mix of red and green)
10 large mint leaves

 

serves x 6 medium sized salads (or x 8 side salads or x 4 large)

 

Notes

• You can just use whatever bacon is in your fridge. If it has rind just trim it off and if you are using shoulder or middle rather than streaky I would probably use 4 pieces as they are bigger.
• I think that walnut halves are better than pieces for this salad as the pieces as so small will easily fall through to the bottom of the plate whereas the halves will sit nicer here and there.
• You can replace the walnuts with pecans if you like.
• And of course you can use coral lettuce too or even a mixture of both.

 

WALKTHROUGH

Dressing

In a medium sized bowl whisk together the yoghurt, olive oil and lemon juice until smooth.

Peel the garlic clove and crush it, adding it to the bowl along with the salt and pepper. Then add the crumbled feta and gently fold it all together.

Pop it into the fridge to chill.

Salad

Starting on the salad prep….it won’t take long.

Preheat the oven to 160°C fan bake oven or 180°C conventional oven, on bake, with a rack situated in the centre of the oven. Line the bottom of a baking dish with baking paper or cooking foil and set aside.

It’s best to do the tamarillos first. So, if you haven’t any ice on hand fill a small bowl with water (enough to cover the tamarillos) and place it in the freezer.

Next using a sharp knife cut a shallow cross into the bottom of each tamarillo.

Grab out a small saucepan and fill it with water, enough to cover the tamarillos (but don’t put them in just yet). then place the saucepan over a high heat and bring the water to the boil.

When it’s boiling, leave it boiling for just a minute while you fill a medium-sized bowl with again, enough water in it to cover the tamarillos, with a handful of ice thrown into it (or get the cold bowl of water from the freezer ready on the bench).

Then using tongs carefully place the tamarillos into the boiling water. Leave them in for 1 minute or until the cross you cut starts to split open, whichever of these comes first (if you cook them too long the flesh will start cooking).

Remove them with the tongs and place them in the bowl of iced/very cold water for a few minutes or until they have cooled down (this stops them from cooking further).

The cooled tamarillos can be skinned now. So remove them from the bowl of water and starting at the cross-cut use your fingers or a little sharp knife and gently peel the skin back.

• If any flesh is coming away with the skin they may have been left in the boiling water too long. Alternately if the skin is not easily coming away the water wasn’t hot enough or they weren’t left in long enough. If it’s not easily peeling away return them to the boiling water for another minute.

Now cut the stalk end of each one and slice them in half lengthways. Cut each one into 8 wedges.

Lay the wedges out onto a tray and sprinkle over 3 tablespoons of the brown sugar, tossing them in it. Then drizzle the juice of half of one of the oranges and…..

…..place them in the oven and roast them for 25 minutes, carefully turning them after 15 minutes. Then place them onto a paper towel and leave them aside.

Place the walnuts, the remaining brown sugar and butter into a small saucepan.

Over a low heat continuously stir until the butter has melted and the walnuts are nicely toasted and there is no sugar or butter left as it has coated the walnuts. Set them aside for later.

Next, grill (broil) the bacon on both sides until both sides are super crispy.

When it’s cooled down a tad, chop it into chunky pieces and set it aside also.

Time to chop the ends of the spring onion’s and thinly slice them on an angle. setting them aside too.

With the remaining oranges cut them into thin wedges (not slices) nice little wedges like the tamarillos.

Then run your knife between the skin and the flesh to remove the skin and the pith (that white stuff, it’s not very nice to eat).

As with all the other prep, set the little wedges aside.

Wash and spin the lettuce.

• I use a spinner to dry mine but it you don’t own one you can just lay it out onto a clean tea towel and gently lay another on top and pat it dry.

Rip the lettuce up into smaller pieces (not too small….it’sa chunky looking salad we’re making here 🙂 )and place onto a large platter.

Rip up the mint leaves and toss them, the bacon and the spring onion slices through the lettuce.

Next carefully lifting the lettuce here and there, place on top, underneath and inside the salad, the oranges and the tamarillos.

Lastly toss the walnuts all over it.

You can place blobs of the chunky dressing here and there if you like or just serve it with the salad (even in a little jug and spoon on the platter).

Gorgeous! It’s quite a pretty thing so there’s really no need to garnish however I added a sprig of mint and a nasturtium flower just for becaue I have them in my herb garden. :).

Best eaten on the same day as some of the lettuce will go a little bit limp overnight due to the juice from the oranges and tamarillos.

Love tamarillos? There is a rather tasty upside down tamarillo muffin recipe here, check it out. 🙂

So, are you in my corner and love eating fruit on pizzas and in salads?