If anyone can call themselves a salad expert, it’s Brett Hutley. Along with his wife, Alison Hutley, Brett founded fancy Brisbane salad and cake takeaway joint Botanica.
“Fresh and simple is the easiest way to describe it,” Brett says. “Our salads are a little more robust, in that they’ll keep a little bit longer. We don’t use much in the way of lettuces. We use grains, roasted vegetables and that sort of thing.”
As another summer of barbeque-side entertaining rolls around, Hutley recommends elevating your salads beyond the role of protein sidekick. Hutley has created a salad recipe for Broadsheet that pairs nicely with Jose Cuervo’s Sparkling Watermelon Margarita, meaning you won’t have to spend extra time thinking about which drinks to make.
“I like a few different dimensions to a salad,” he says. “Some texture like crunch, in the way of nuts, croutons or pickling vegetables in sweet or sour [flavours]. Sauces like nut dressings add another dimension, just so you’ve got a few different layers.”
Hutley’s salad ticks all the boxes for entertaining, with layers of flavour and robust ingredients that can all be put together ahead of time.
“It’s something I would cook at home, to be honest,” says Hutley. “Roasting the pears, the whipped feta – it can all be done in advance and put together at the last minute.”
Start by preparing the whipped feta – and again, this can be done the day before if you want to make things really easy on yourself. Hutley recommends whipping the feta, Greek yoghurt, olive oil and lemon together in a food processor and keeping it in the fridge until you need it.
“That can be ready and then all you need to do, because it’ll reset a little bit in the fridge, is just loosen it up by folding it through with a spoon,” he says.
The other star here is the roasted pears, which lend a fruity sweetness to cut through the rich whipped feta.
“The pears you just chop up into chunks or wedges, add a little bit of olive oil, roast them in a hot oven and take them out when they’re nice and golden,” says Huntley. “They’ll be a little soft, tender, with a bit of colour on them. Then you just leave them to cool and pop them in the fridge.”
The pickled red onion can be done ahead of time, but it’s so quick that you can prepare it just before serving if you’d rather. “Combine the water, vinegar and sugar until it’s dissolved and put your onions in,” he says. “It’s a quick pickle, so you put them in, then after five minutes pull them out and put them on your salad.”
To assemble, Hutley layers each ingredient separately. “Put a generous smear [of feta] on the bottom of the plate and then layer it from there – put your pears on it, croutons, onions, and layer it up,” he says. “Then the idea would be that you could take a piece and wipe it through the feta with a crouton and put it on your plate and away you go.”
If you’re dishing up when the sun is shining, the spectrum of big flavours in Hutley’s salad makes an ideal match for a light, crisp beverage such as the Jose Cuervo Sparkling Watermelon Margarita, which has a zesty watermelon flavour making it an ideal pairing for the salad.
“You get the sweetness from the roasted pears, and then you’ve got the creamy saltiness of the whipped feta,” he says. “You’ve got croutons for crunch, toasted almonds. Cucumber and mint freshen the whole thing up, and then that complements the drink which is a little lighter.”
Recipe: Brett Hutley’s roasted pear and whipped feta salad
Serves 4
Preparation time: 45 minutes
Ingredients:
4 Packham pears
4 slices sourdough
½ cup almonds
1 cup picked mint leaves
2 Lebanese cucumbers, thinly sliced
Pickled red onion
1 cup white-wine vinegar
1 cup water
½ cup white sugar
1 red onion
Whipped feta
1 cup Greek yoghurt
200 grams Danish feta
1 tablespoon olive oil
Zest of 1 lemon
Method:
You can make the pickle and whipped feta ahead of time. For the pickled red onion, combine vinegar, water and sugar, and stir to dissolve sugar. Thinly slice the red onion and place in pickling liquid for 10 minutes.
For the whipped feta, use a food processor to combine Greek yoghurt, crumbled feta and olive oil. Blitz until creamy, then fold through lemon zest.
When you’re ready to make the salad, cut the pears into eighths and remove the core. Lightly coat in olive oil and oven-roast on 180°C for 10 minutes, or until golden and tender. Put them in the fridge to cool.
While the pears are roasting, prepare the croutons by tearing the sourdough into bite-sized pieces. Roughly chop the almonds. Lightly coat almonds and bread in olive oil and toast in oven for approximately 7–10 minutes, or until golden and crunchy. When they’re done, put the pears in the fridge to cool, and set croutons and almonds aside.
To assemble salad, spoon whipped feta onto the bottom of the serving platter and spread out in a thick layer. Then layer all salad ingredients, starting with the pear, mint and cucumber. Top with croutons, almonds and pickled onions. Repeat layers until you have used all the ingredients, saving some of the crunchy croutons, pickled onions and mint to garnish.
Finish with a drizzle of good olive oil, season with salt and pepper, and serve.
You can also fold prosciutto ribbons on top, or serve with lamb cutlets straight from the barbeque.
This article is produced by Broadsheet in partnership with Jose Cuervo and the launch of its Sparkling Watermelon Margarita.
