57-59 Club Garden Rd, Sheffield, S11 8BU

This is Meera Sodha’s take on Thai som tam salad but without the papaya: “a taste of Bangkok but via an English allotment”… hot, sour, salty, sweet, but also old and crunchy. And it gets extra points from us for being a new way to have courgettes. Don’t forget you can buy organic limes and garlic as extras via the Regather online shop.

Thai tomato and courgette salad with peanut crumbs

Season: Summer

This is Meera Sodha’s take on Thai som tam salad but without the papaya: “a taste of Bangkok but via an English allotment”… hot, sour, salty, sweet, but also cold and crunchy. And it gets extra points from us for being a new way to have courgettes. Don’t forget you can buy organic limes and garlic as extras via the Regather online shop.

Ingredients

For the Dressing:

4 birds’ eye chillies

3 garlic cloves, peeled and roughly chopped

3½ tbsp soy sauce

3 limes, juiced

Rapeseed oil

1½ tsp palm sugar

For the salad:

500g cherry tomatoes, halved

2 courgettes, julienned

1 large handful Thai basil leaves, shredded

40g roasted peanuts, crushed

40g dry breadcrumbs

¼ tsp salt

Method

Make the dressing. Roughly chop three of the chillies and put them in a blender with the garlic, soy, lime juice, two tbsp of oil and the sugar. Whizz until well blended.

Put the tomato halves in a large bowl, then lightly squash them with a hand. Pour over the dressing and set aside. Put the julienned courgettes on top of the tomatoes, but don’t mix them in yet. Sprinkle over the shredded basil.

Make the peanut breadcrumbs. Heat two tbsp of oil in a frying pan over a medium heat. While it’s warming up, very finely chop the remaining chilli. When the oil is hot, add the chilli, peanuts, breadcrumbs and salt, stir for around four minutes until golden brown, then take off the heat.

To assemble the salad, mix the courgettes and basil into the tomatoes, then tip out on to a lipped platter. Scatter the breadcrumbs on top at the last minute, or wait until people have helped themselves and they can sprinkle a small mountain over their own serving.

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