Shabbat Dinner in summer

In the heat of summer, cooking in a hot apartment with no air conditioning and preparing a great big heavy Shabbos dinner is not the most enjoyable thing for me.

After some consideration I decided that something light was in order for this heat wave we are experiencing.

Efi will never say no to chicken schnitzel. It’s easy to prepare and saves well too. As for the rest of the dinner I planned to just make various hot and cold salads to keep the meal as light as possible.

For the chicken schnitzel, I seasoned fresh breadcrumbs with dried coriander leaves, salt and pepper. (I have a recent obsession with coriander lately!)

The Israeli salad was made including: sweet red pepper, ¼ cup each of fresh coriander, parsley and mint. I added some fresh pomegranate seeds just for fun. A dressing made of lemon juice and olive season with salt a pepper is mixed through.

Warm potato salad is something I watched Jamie Oliver make on one of his cooking shows some time ago and fell in love with, who does not like carbo-loading!! I chose a bunch of Mediterranean baby potatoes that were cleaned and quartered and boiled till quite soft. Water drained in a colander and shaken about to rough up a little. A dressing is made of 2 Tbsp each of olive oil and lemon juice seasoned with salt and pepper and a ¼ cup fresh chopped parsley which is poured over the still hot potatoes...mmmm

The highlight however was the Warm aubergine and chickpea salad!!!

The aubergine was sliced lengthways and set aside with sprinkled salt for 30 mins. Thereafter rinsed under fresh water and cubed. In a pot, I warmed a little olive oil and added ½ tsp of dried flaked garlic and a tsp ground cumin. The cubed aubergine was then added and cooked till soft and a little browned. A drained can of chickpea’s added to the pot and warmed through. A Tbsp olive oil and tsp lemon juice stirred through and tossed with some fresh coriander leaves.

Shabbat Shalom!