A bit on the side

What does Sunday lunch mean to you? Steamy windows, expert timing and congealing fat? A lazy booze-fuelled, chat-fest with friends, or a fraught encounter with the family?

The Sunday lunches of my childhood were preceded by a trip to church. Thus spirituality and roast meat have always been inextricably linked in my mind. At first I found mass unintelligible, then I moved on to bored, but my divine interest started to pick up as I became interested in boys and church became a good scouting venue.

There's no need to be slaving over a hot stove on a summer Sunday. Instead, get your meat in the oven when you're having breakfast and give it (and you) time to relax before serving for lunch with cold salady vegetabley dishes - such as crunchy and colourful coleslaw or tastebud-tickling wasabi potato salad. Both recipes serve 4-6.

Wasabi potato salad

Wasabi Potato Salad

500g new potatoes
6 tablespoons mayonnaise
½-1 teaspoon wasabi powder*
6 spring onions, sliced

Mix together the mayo and wasabi powder. Cook the potatoes, allow them to cool a little, then cut into chunks and mix them carefully into the wasabi mayo while they are still warm. Add the spring onions.

*Remember that the flavour and heat of the powdered stuff develops slowly!

Coleslaw

Coleslaw

Half a small white cabbage (outer leaves and stalk removed), sliced finely
3 or 4 carrots, peeled and grated
8 spring onions, sliced

100g mayonnaise
2 tablespoons buttermilk
1 tablespoon maple syrup
1 teaspoon cider vinegar

Mix together the wet ingredients then add the cabbage, carrot and spring onions and mix some more. I like to add a handful of raisins, though my children spit with disgust if I do.

Carrot and Nut Salad

Another one you can knock up in a few minutes is my Carrot and nut salad. Again, I like it with a handful of raisins thrown in.

Bulging Greek pockets

Warm pitta bread stuffed with flash-fried lamb steaks or lamb burgers, oozing with houmous and tsatsiki, served with a crunchy carrot and peanut salad.

A kebab by any other name...

Carrot and Peanut Salad

Combine 4 grated medium size carrots with 2 tbsp red wine vinegar, 2tbsp olive or vegetable oil, a couple of drops of sesame oil and 80g peanuts.

To follow, we had sore-throat-slushy-smoothies, made by blending together some orange juice, pear juice, a squeeze of lime and a big handful of frozen strawberries.  The frozen fruit is essential for texture and temperature, but try using any combination of juice/tinned fruit/fresh fruit.