Goodness, gracious: great bowls of salad

I'm not having the best week (see prev: putting my back out) and I'm not a massive fan of salad (see prev: passim), but I've managed to schedule a couple of very decent Big Salads this week, and been pleased with both. I commend them to you for warmish days when you can still face heating something. 

Prawn, avocado and mango

From the Little Library Year, severely compromised by me using up both mint and coriander on previous dishes - I need some kind of notation on my list that That Mint Is For Two Dishes or similar, rather than going wild early in the week. I could, at this point, feasibly drop into a supermarket for an extra packet of herbs and not feel like I'd broken the spirit of the lockdown, but I've tended to try to keep my shopping within bounds, having got into good habits. 

Still, I had the crucial bits: raw prawns, a delicious mango, an avocado. A few spring onions, and ideally also a salted/lemoned/sliced onion. Plus dressing: 2tsp fish sauce, a lime, 1tsp sugar, a bit of chilli if you do, some sesame seeds. Plus, as I say, loads of chopped mint and coriander assuming you haven't stirred them into some spicy corn already this week.

Mix all the veg and chopped mango. Dress.

Ugly but delicious potato salad is an optional side and imho was SPIFFING

 

Cook the prawns and add them.

Eat. 

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Alternatively, consider a version of salad nicoise, except from Bitter Honey, so it's pretending to be Sardianian.
 

Green beans, tomatoes, olives, potatoes, basil, posh tuna, olives and vinaigrette. It's not rocket science. But it had slightly fallen off my radar, which is where a cookbook can be handy. The basil works as an extra. I'm not sorry to lose the traditional hardboiled eggs. I might have added an anchovy, but didn't.

 It turned out this was what I needed the small potatoes for, so tomorrow's leftovers will need some toast adding. I really do need to improve my planning documentation. Otherwise all good.

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A strange feeling about these pictures is looking at that flat green bowl. I bought that for work, and used it for various of my more ungainly packed lunches for the last few years. It also did duty for a load of departmental bake offs, picnics and such. I took it home on the one occasion I went into the office in October. Now it's part of my home kit, doing salad duty. I wonder how much else I need to repatriate, for the New Normal. Or whether this bowl will go back someday.

*elaborate shrugging* Who can say? Che sera sera. Spose.