We’re celebrating our heritage again this month, with National Braai Day coming up on the 24th of September. Although you may spend most of your energy on getting the best quality meat for your braai, it just won’t be the same without all the extras. Yes, we’re talking about the salad.
Here are some delicious, healthy salad recipes to perk your braai right up!
Creamy, No-Mayo coleslaw
Ingredients
Slaw
- 200g (1 baby) red cabbage.
- 200g (1 baby) green cabbage.
- 2 large carrots.
- ½ red pepper, seeds removed.
- ½ green pepper, seeds removed.
- 1 can kernel corn, drained.
Dressing
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 ½ teaspoons honey
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- ½ cup cottage cheese
- Season with salt and black pepper to taste
Method
- Remove the stem and thinly slice the cabbages.
- Peel and grate the carrots.
- Dice the peppers.
- Place the cabbages, carrots and peppers into a large bowl.
- Add the kernel corn and mix well.
- To make the dressing, mix the cottage cheese, honey, white wine vinegar, and mustard together.
- Season to taste with salt and black pepper.
- Add half the dressing to the slaw mix and toss well until all the vegetables are evenly coated.
- Add the remaining dressing.
- Place in the fridge until you’re ready to serve.
Tossed potato and tuna salad
Ingredients
- 4 small potatoes, sliced in half.
- 2 tins of tuna in brine.
- 20 black olives, pitted.
- 1 small red onion finely sliced.
- 150g long green beans sliced into 2cm pieces.
- 8-10 sundried tomatoes, roughly chopped
- 1 bag of baby spinach
- 20g sunflower seeds toasted
- 2 tbsps olive oil
Cook the potatoes in a pot of boiling water. Keep the lid on and when potatoes are cooked, drain and leave to cool.
Method
- Slice the onion, drain the tuna and steam the green beans for 4-5 minutes.
- In a large salad bowl, toss the warm potatoes, green beans, spinach and red onion.
- Drizzle with olive oil and mix well. The spinach leaves will wilt slightly from the warm potatoes.
- Add the tuna, sundried tomatoes and black olives, lightly mix and serve with a sprinkle of sunflower seeds.
Warm lentil and root vegetable salad with coconut tzatziki
Ingredients
Lentils
- 1 cup green lentils.
- Himalayan pink salt.
- 
Pepper
- 1½ kg medium carrots.
- 1½ kg medium parsnips, halved lengthwise and cut into 5cm pieces.
- 2 ¼ tsp ground cumin.
- 2 ÂĽ tsp ground coriander.
- ½ tsp chilli powder.
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil.
- 1/3Â cup fresh lemon juice.
- Âľ cup chopped mint.
- Âľ cup chopped cilantro.Â
Tzatziki:
- 1 cup coconut milk yoghurt.
- ÂĽ cup finely diced seeded cucumber.
- 1 tbsp extra-virgin olive oil.
- 1 tbsp fresh lemon juice.
- 1 tsp finely chopped dill.
- 1 tsp finely chopped chives.
- 1 garlic clove, minced.
- Fine Himalayan pink salt.
- 
Pepper.
Method
- Cook the lentils in a large saucepan, cover with water and bring to a boil. Simmer over moderate heat for 20 minutes until just tender. Remove from the heat, add a generous pinch of salt and let it stand for five minutes and drain. Spread the lentils on a rimmed baking sheet (it has raised edges that will keep the lentils in place) and let them cool.
- Preheat the oven. On the large rimmed baking sheet, toss the carrots and parsnips with the cumin, coriander, chilli powder and ÂĽ cup of the olive oil. Season generously with salt and pepper. Roast the vegetables until tender and browned in spots. This should be about 25 minutes.
- In a large bowl, toss the lentils with the warm roasted vegetables, the lemon juice and the remaining olive oil. Fold in the chopped mint and cilantro and season with salt and pepper. Transfer to a platter and garnish with mint and cilantro leaves.
- For the tzatziki; whisk all of the ingredients together and season with salt and pepper. Serve alongside the warm lentil salad.