{"id":16015,"date":"2014-04-25T21:54:12","date_gmt":"2014-04-25T19:54:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16015"},"modified":"2014-04-25T21:59:02","modified_gmt":"2014-04-25T19:59:02","slug":"feta-apple-and-cucumber-salad-with-yogurt","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/?p=16015","title":{"rendered":"Feta, Apple and Cucumber Salad with Yogurt"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"fetaapplesaladp\"Whenever I desperately wanted to use one precise food ingredient, I always wished I could look at a cookery book’s index, find a tempting recipe and discover that, by pure accident, I had all the remaining items in the kitchen (or, at worst, needed to buy just one more). Such a dream situation hardly ever happened before I discovered “Hugh’s Three Good Things” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall<\/a>, where every\u00a0recipe is based on three main products, the secondary ones and seasoning being reduced to a minimum. The book is however much more than very practical cooking ideas and this quick salad is a perfect example of its content.<\/p>\n

Even though I already have – and strongly appreciate – other books by H. Fearnley-Whitthingstall, I hesitated a lot before ordering this one because I feared a typical stuff for beginners. Luckily, I was wrong and the book surprised me as a collection of well-thought and inventive ideas. I bookmarked about half of the book and this salad (the result of my search for new cucumber recipes) is the first dish I have tested, though slightly modified. Actually, the original salad doesn’t contain feta or any other cheese. I prepared the three ingredient version (cucumber+yogurt+apple), tasted it and loved it so much, I decided to transform it into a filling, but light meal, adding some feta. Feta was a perfect addition, so I thought I’d share with your this humble-looking but (at least for me) surprisingly good light meal.<\/p>\n

I have changed the original recipe (see the TIPS for example), so to see this one and many more extraordinary ideas, check\u00a0“Hugh’s Three Good Things” by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall<\/a>.<\/p>\n

TIPS: If you intend to prepare this salad in advance (perfect for a lunch box), add the yogurt and the mint just before serving. Otherwise the feta will absorb the yogurt. As for the mint, its scent will be seriously diminished. Cucumber might also become a bit mushy.<\/p>\n

I was in a hurry, so I didn’t bother to spend more than ten minutes on this salad, but if you have some time, the first step in the original recipe is to remove the seeds from the cucumber, cut it into pieces and let about 30 minutes sprinkled with salt. It changes the cucumber’s taste and makes it more digest for those who have problems with it. After this quick “pickling” time, do not remove the salt or the juices from the bowl. Mix everything into the salad.<\/p>\n

Preparation: about 10 minutes (or 40 if you quickly salt-pickle the cucumber)<\/em><\/p>\n

Ingredients (serves two, served with bread as a light dish):<\/em><\/p>\n

2\/3 of a long cucumber<\/em><\/p>\n

1 feta package (200g\/about 7 oz), drained<\/em><\/p>\n

2 medium firm, rather sweet (but not too much!) apples<\/em><\/p>\n

several branches of fresh mint, leaves only<\/em><\/p>\n

<\/em>125 g (about 2,2 oz) – 200 g (about 7 oz) natural yogurt (or sour milk\/cream)<\/em><\/p>\n

freshly ground pepper<\/em><\/p>\n

Remover the cucumber seeds or not (I didn’t), cut the cucumber into 1\/4 slices and either keep on preparing the rest of the salad, or, if you have time, put it into a bowl, sprinkle some salt and leave it for about 30 minutes (see the TIPS above).<\/p>\n

Cut up the apple into bite-sized pieces (you might want to peel it; I have peeled only half of the apple).<\/p>\n

Cut the feta into cubes.<\/p>\n

Chop the mint leaves.<\/p>\n

Combine the feta, the apple, the cucumber, the chopped mint and the yogurt, stirring delicately.<\/p>\n

Season with pepper.<\/p>\n

Serve.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Whenever I desperately wanted to use one precise food ingredient, I always wished I could look at a cookery book’s index, find a tempting recipe…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":16016,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[130,204,209,125,183,18],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16015"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=16015"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16015\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16024,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16015\/revisions\/16024"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/16016"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=16015"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=16015"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.withaglass.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=16015"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}