We’ve lucked out with the weather this week. It’s really really hot and sunny so I am temporarily in my Greek summer mode – slumped in the shade with my notebook brainstorming future recipe ideas, living on nothing but salads and fruit and fighting the afternoon slump with prolific amount of ice cold caffeine – my drug of choice 😉 . Espresso freddo – cold Greek coffee that we fell in love with when living on Paros – is something we cannot live without. We don’t have a special machine that the Greek cafes use to make it, but I found that making it in a blender is a good enough hack.
As Duncan has become a bit of a coffee snob, we use his favourite single origin coffee brewed in a Chemex for an extra smooth end result that requires zero sugar or plant milk, but any coffee will do. It is a good idea to brew it a little stronger than you would normally as ice dulls the flavour a little. We go through a lot of coffee and as I dislike waste, I’ve recently started turning our single origin coffee grounds into a coffee scrub – something that has earned me a fair amount of sniggering from you-know-who.
I’ve been using a shop-bought coffee scrub for a while but I ran out during the lockdown and with such a steady amount of coffee grounds going into our compost daily, I’ve decided to make my own. As opposed to the shop-bought version which had a lot of ingredients (including agave syrup!!), my version is dead simple. I spread used up grounds on a baking tray and dry them out in the sun. Once dry I put them in a jar with some organic almond oil to form a paste. The coffee exfoliates your skin while the almond oil keeps it moisturised and it smells wonderful. I recommend it to anyone with a regular supply of coffee grounds. I don’t think I will need to buy it ever again.
Recipewise, I have a deliciously crunchy, tangy and sweet, hydrating and filling salad for you today. It is ideal hot weather food, perfect for easy entertaining, a BBQ or a picnic. It doesn’t require much work. A bit of careful chopping and this colourful bowl comes together in a cinch. It’s healthy yet definitely not boring and I hope you’ll enjoy it. x
DRESSING
DRESSING