Camping Recipes: Simple Salads

Aaaaah…Broome. A jewel in the Kimberley crown. It’s a great place to visit and, if you’re up to it, a great place to live. Particularly if you have a lust for adventure, as I seem to have.

Having thrown my swag down in town nearly a month ago, it didn’t take me long to find a few hidden campsites and stretches of deserted beach upon which to recline, swim, forage for food and immerse myself in nature.

But it was a bit of a trip to get here and it nearly turned into disaster.

Before I left chilly old Victoria, I replaced a few bushes on the truck… part of keeping the old girl going is regular maintenance of the lesser-known components on the car. In this case it was the castor bushes on the front differential housing. They kind of keep the front end in place so that it doesn’t decide to vacate your car anytime soon.

But, as I was about to find out, I hadn’t tightened up one bolt enough and the result was, I ended losing it with about 600km of the Tanami Track to go and it left me a little itchy in the underpants. The scenarios going through my head about how long it would be before I could expect any form of recovery left me reeling...

I wasn’t worried for my personal safety, rather that I had a deadline to meet and, if the car was broken, I was surely going to be letting down a whole lot of people.

I made some running repairs, crossed my fingers and toddled on up the track. Late in the afternoon, with still some hours to go to Halls Creek, the fuel system got an air lock. More mental torture as I was now sure that because bad luck always comes in threes, if I were to get a flat, I was bound to meet Mick Taylor from Wolf Creek, while I was changing the wheel. Man, was I feeling the heat.

Anyway, I made it, Mick Taylor is a mere figment of my imagination now and Broome opened its arms and pubs to this thirsty traveller.

And it was while I was sitting under a Pandanus palm overlooking the crystal clear, azure ocean before me, wondering what to have for dinner that my tastes turned to tropical-type salad-y things.

The Kimberley has some of the most beautiful coastline in the world and, for the most part it remains deserted, other than for a few hardy souls who stretch their steeds just that little bit into the edge of the unknown.

Enjoy these salads and get out there and among it.

SPINACH AND AVOCADO SALAD WITH HONEY DIJON DRESSING

• 3 handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 1 avocado, sliced

LIME DRESSING

• ¼ cup Dijon mustard
• 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
• 2 tbsp olive oil
• 1 clove garlic, finely minced
• 2 tbsp minced ginger
• 2 tbsp honey
• Sea salt and pepper to taste
• ¼ cup water, or more for thinning

The dressing is the highlight of this salad and whatever ingredients you have will suffice in the salad bowl.

In a blender, combine all of the ingredients for the dressing and blend until smooth and adjust the flavours to taste.

Add a tablespoon of water at a time if a thinner dressing is desired.

WATERMELON SALAD

• 1 small red onion, sliced
• 2 tbsp lime juice, or more to taste
• 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 seedless watermelon, cut into cubes
• 1 continental cucumber, seeded and cut into cubes
• 1 cup feta cheese, crumbled
• ½ cup mint leaves, torn roughly

Mix red onion with lime juice in a bowl; set aside to marinate for at least 10 minutes. Stir olive oil into the mixture.

Toss watermelon, cucumber, and feta cheese together in a large bowl. Pour the red onion mixture over the watermelon mixture; toss to coat. Sprinkle mint over the salad and serve.

TUNA PASTA WITH A PARSLEY PESTO

• 400g dried pasta
• 1 bunch of flat leaf parsley, torn and chopped
• 100g mixed salad leaves
• 2 x 185g tinned tuna in olive oil, drained, but reserve the oil
• 1 lemon, zested and juiced
• 200g cherry tomato, halved
• 2 tbsp sour cream

Cook the pasta in a large pan of salted boiling water. Drain, reserving a mug of cooking water.

Whizz the parsley, half the salad leaves, 3 tbsp of oil from the tuna, the lemon zest and juice, and some seasoning with enough of the reserved water in a food processor to form a spoon-able pesto dressing.

Tip the pasta and tomatoes into the pan and add the pesto, both cans of tuna and the sour cream, stirring through until hot. Remove from the heat and toss the rest of the salad leaves through the pasta.

Check out the full feature in issue #104 August 2016 of Camper Trailer Australia magazine. Subscribe today for all the latest camper trailer news, reviews and travel inspiration.