Recently saw this Nadia Lim recipe for Roast beetroot, rocket and spiced haloumi salad with tamarillo dressing. I've got heaps of beetroot and spinach growing in the veggie gardens here at Struan Farm, so decided to give it a try, substituting spinach for the rocket.
Tamarillos (also called "tree tomatoes") are in season right now. I tried growing one many years ago when we lived further north in Papakura, but it died after getting zapped by frost. So we definitely can't grow them in frosty Piopio, I won't even try! It's a fruit I'm not so sure about, but then I've started to like feijoas, so think I need to keep trying with these too.
The beetroot is cut into pieces and roasted with olive oil, maple syrup, salt & pepper (I peeled the beets, although Nadia says that's not essential). The dressing is made in a jar with peeled and diced tamarillo, liquid honey, olive oil, and dijon mustard. Slices of haloumi are dusted with ground cumin, turmeric, salt & pepper then pan fried in a bit of olive oil. The salad is assembled, drizzled with dressing, then toasted sunflower seeds are sprinkled on top.
This was really good-- the tartness of the tamarillo really made a difference to the overall flavour of the salad. Next time I will try it with rocket, I'm curious to see how the different taste of that compares to the spinach version.
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