Charlotte Williams is a Naturopath, Cook, Writer and Vegan foodie. Sharing her life between Sydney and the Blue Mountains Charlotte shares her wisdom and learnings for a healthy life + wellbeing on her blog www.charlottewilliams.com.au and whilst juggling many things, is in the process of writing her first book.
Today Charlotte shares with us one of her favourite recipes, a Middle Eastern inspired summer salad. Perfect for the bohemian traveller, who is looking for a healthy and delicious lunch to enjoy in our endless Australian summer.
Growing up in South of Spain and with a family that are adventurous travellers, my exposure to Middle Eastern cultures started pretty early on in life. I, being a picky eater back then, as well as being on the periphery of the beginning of my vegan journey, absolutely fell in love with these cultures and in particular the culinary parts, that constitute incredibly strong elements within these ancient cultures. Apart from traveling to the Middle East, many of my friends from school and university, are also responsible for introducing me to their, to use a Swedish word, husmanskost (house-man’s diet), and this is how I realised that there is a flow of various common ingredients and flavours across many cultures or manners of eating in our World, that naturally influence large groups of people and their diets. I slowly realised, as I was happily munching away on what was to me rather exotic delicacies, that I would have similar foods at Yazgil’s, Nazir’s and Leyla’s house, with just that little bit of a difference that would come down to either a spice, a herb or a vegetable…and it is this beautiful culinary fusion in ways of eating, that continues to inspire me and my personal manners of eating and cooking, until this date. What I really like about this particular salad is that there is no need for a dressing, the ingredients have it all going for themselves and it is a highly nutritious, amino acid rich, filling and clean vegan meal.
With all my recipes, I encourage you to use organic, local and or home grown produce as much as possible, my next suggestion would be to source your produce from smaller independent fruit and veggie shops, as they also have a close contact with farmers, as well as abide to fair financial contracts.
Wash and prepare all ingredients accordingly.
Place them in a mixing bowl in the order stated above, apart from the topping.
With clean hands, mix very gently and for a very short while, as to not bruise any of the ingredients. The goal being to ensure all the ingredients are somewhat evenly mixed.
Turn all ingredients gently into a serving bowl of sorts.