Zesty, spicy, funky salad

Given the balmy weather we have been eating a lot of salad recently. This is our favourite because it tastes so good and looks pretty too (and yes Joan, it's so good that even Steve eats it without complaining!).

The crunchy texture and zingy flavours make this a perfect barbecue salad.


Serves 2-3 people as a main course or up to 8 as a side salad.


Ingredients

• 1 medium onion, coarsely chopped
• 1/2 green pepper, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 red pepper, cut into small pieces
• 1/2 yellow pepper, cut into small pieces
• 2 large tomatoes chopped
• 75g of mange tout or sugar snap peas
• 1 large carrot, peeled and grated
• 165g tinned sweetcorn, drained
• 1 green chilli finely chopped
• a handful of chopped coriander
• 1 teaspoon of salt
• 1 teaspoon of freshly ground black pepper
• 2 cloves of garlic crushed
• 1 tablespoon sesame seeds
• a handful of chopped nuts
• a handful of pine nut kernals
• Juice of 1 lemon
• Juice of 2 limes
• 150 ml of sweet chilli sauce
  

Method

1. Put all of the ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Use salad servers to gently mix the ingredients and then taste to check the seasoning.
2. You will find that a lot of juice accumulates in the mixing bowl due to the tomatoes, citrus and sweet chilli sauce. When transferring to the serving dish(es) leave some of the juice behind as it will cause the salad to become soggy with time.
3. Be aware that if the salad is not going to be eaten immediately the chilli will marinade into the vegetables and make the salad spicier. Reduce the chilli quantities if this is something that concerns you.
4. Feel free to add additional ingredients (for example half a cucumber works well but I omit it as Steve claims it is "the food of the devil".) or leave out items you don't like. By the way, I use three different peppers to add more colour to the dish - you can always just choose 1 or 2 peppers and leave it there.