Zola Nene has become quite a force on the South African culinary scene, yet her personal quest is to show people that cooking great food needn’t be pretentious or difficult.

Try her recipe for Roasted Tomato, Crouton and Beef Salad from Simply Zola!

You can serve it as a main course, a starter or the perfect side dish!

Serves 4 as a main course, or 6–8 as a side dish or starter.

Ingredients

• 400g mixed exotic tomatoes, halved
• olive oil
• a pinch chilli flakes
• 4 sprigs thyme
• salt and pepper
• ½ ciabatta loaf, torn into chunks
• 2 x 200g sirloin steaks
• 1 onion, sliced
• 5ml finely grated garlic
• 20ml red wine vinegar
• 5ml sugar
• ½ cucumber, peeled, deseeded and sliced
• 15g fresh basil
• 15g parsley leaves

Method

• Preheat the oven to 180°C.
• Place the tomatoes in an oven dish, drizzle them with olive oil, season with the chilli flakes, then sprinkle over the thyme leaves. Season with salt and pepper and roast for 25 minutes until the tomatoes begin to soften.
• Arrange the ciabatta chunks on a baking tray, drizzle with 30ml olive oil and season with salt and pepper. Toast in the oven (still at 180°C) until the bread is golden in colour.
• Season the sirloin steaks to taste, then drizzle with a little olive oil before frying them in a hot pan until done to your liking. Leave to rest before slicing.
• Place the onion and garlic in a bowl, add the vinegar, a pinch of salt and the sugar. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, toss together the roasted tomatoes, toasted ciabatta, sliced steaks, sliced
  cucumber, basil and parsley. Mix 60ml olive oil into the onion mixture, then drizzle over the salad and toss well. Serve immediately.

 

• Download the recipe PDF here

Categories Cookery Lifestyle Non-fiction South Africa

Tags Penguin Random House SA Recipes Simply Zola Zola Nene