Can I just start by saying how much I love strawberries? When I was a kid I remember the best pudding we had at home was ice cream with strawberries. I’d mush them all together and eat it like soup. When I grew up, Eton Mess entered the scene and it was love at first sight. Now, I am incredibly boring and I just eat them on their own. Sometimes in smoothies.
So it was thanks to Viva Strawberries for adding a new dimension to my love of strawberries. They recently sent me over lunch and a punnet of the most perfect-looking strawberries ever. As for the salad? Well, it was so good and rather unusual that I asked if I could share their recipe here. You’ll see what I mean when I say unusual… it has STRAWBERRIES in.
The salad that arrived looked like a piece of art. For a start, it came in a Kilner jar and I’ve got a bit of a crush on Kilner jars these days. It was a layered salad that involved chickpeas, rocket, mint, feta and of course, strawberries. I’ve skipped the feta in this recipe as I’ve since discovered I’m dairy-intolerant which sucks but it still tastes awesome. It also makes it vegan. For the full recipe, there’s a video a bit further down that shows you how to make the original.
For this, a Kilner Jar works really well. It also doubles up as a good lunchbox so you can take it to work and have it when suits you. Due to the way it’s been layered, there’s also little chance of your salad getting ‘soggy’, just as long as you keep it upright.
How to make a Viva Strawberry kilner jar salad
Doesn’t it look good?!!
Ingredients
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 100g chickpeas rinsed and drained
- handful of rocket
- 250g Viva Strawberries, hulled and quartered
- 1 tbsp shredded mint
- juice of half a lemon
- Himalayan sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Pour the balsamic vinegar and olive oil into the jar and season with a pinch of salt and black pepper. Shake the jar to mix everything together.
- Layer up the jar in the following order: chickpeas, rocket, strawberries and mint.
- Squeeze the lemon into the jar and close.
- Keep refrigerated until ready to eat. Then, just shake the jar to coat the salad in the dressing and enjoy straight from the jar.
The Viva Strawberry salad video
Let me know if you make it and what you think!
A word about the Viva Strawberries
Viva strawberries are all about bringing delicious strawberries to the UK even when they’re not in the British season. British breeder Peter Vinson has carefully developed this premium variety using 25 years experience and they’re grown mostly in southern Spain as well as Morocco and Egypt. Remember that anaemic looking hard and tasteless strawberry that turned up in the punnet you got from the supermarket recently? Viva strawberries are the exact opposite. I am particularly choosy about my strawberries so was impressed with their vivid colour and plumpness. Taste-wise, they were sweeter than the box of supermarket ones I compared them with and they smelt uh-mazing.
Find out more at vivastrawberry.co.uk
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