The Big JO! (a.k.a Jaime Oliver's Moorish Crunch Salad)

I had several great loves growing up...

Leonardo DiCaprio circa Romeo and Juliet  and Titanic was a big one! With that floppy 90's hair and looking down the camera like you just kicked his favourite puppy... swoon! 


As I got a little older we drifted apart (*I'm sorry Leo my love, can we still be friends?*) , my tender heart was eventually claimed by another. Like so many other girls (and lets be real, grown married women too!) at the time, I was seduced by the blue eyes, gelled hair and fennel fondling hands on Mr. Jamie Oliver.

Teen crushing aside, the man formerly know as the Naked Chef is still one of my favourite tv personalities to this day (and as someone who swings between total fangirling obsession to an audible snort of the nose and maybe a lazy 'meh...' in the space of a few months, this is kind of a big deal!).

And guess what all you fellow veggie loving, non-meat eaters?! He has a ton of vegetarian and vegan recipes on his website and posts a new one every week for Meat-Free Monday. #Legend. 

To be honest, I'm not really one for following recipes others have written. I will for sure take bits and pieces and inspiration, but it usually ends up being some Frankenstein of its original self as I stamp my own personal flavour on it. And by that I don't mean I go flicking drops of my sweat and tears into thing.

Don't be gross guys. I know your brand. 

Swiftly jumping back upon my train of thought, one sunny afternoon I decided to break my usual trend and actual follow one of the recipes I had found on jamieoliver.com - spoon for spoon, raisin for raisin! It was one of those rare, wonderful decisions I make from time to time.

This Moorish Crunch Salad delivers what it promises. Its crunchy, its moorish. Its what you would generally call a salad.

It even converted a recipe-phobe like me. Sometimes colouring within the lines and actually following a recipe can be a good thing, who would have though?! Give this one a go and let me know if you loved it as much as I did (or if the temptation grew to much and you threw half a pineapple and a handful of mustard seeds in there just because...).   

Recipe from jamieoliver.com

Moorish crunch salad

300 g carrots, peeled

150 g radishes 

2 crunchy eating apples

1 small handful raisins or sultanas

1 handful fresh parsley, roughly chopped

1 handful fresh mint, roughly chopped

4 tablespoons sherry or red wine vinegar

8 tablespoons olive oil

1 tablespoon tahini

sea salt

freshly ground black pepper

2 tablespoons sesame seeds, toasted in the oven

Finely slice your carrots into matchstick-sized batons. 

Finely slice your radishes – you can leave a little of the tops on if you like. 

 
Quarter your apples, remove the cores and finely slice. 

Add all these to a bowl with the rest of the ingredients, apart from the sesame seeds. Toss together, carefully checking the seasoning, and serve with the sesame seeds sprinkled over the top. Eat straight away.