Simple Grilled Vegetables with Queenie Scallops and Focaccia…

When it’s the end of winter, and you think spring is here but it remains cold and grey….and when you experience that overwhelming desire for plenty of vegetables and a riot of colour to off-set the clouds… This dish took it’s initial inspiration from a Caesar Salad. I was highly excited this week with talk of the solar eclipse – all this coupled with the solar storm images from NASA that were sure to lead to sightings of the Aurora Borealis. You were sure to see it if you lived far enough to the north of the country and it was clear and spring like – but like last year the great BBC TV programme ‘Star Gazing Live’ always seems to herald the onset of thick cloud and in London that was definitely the case. More reasons to put colour into our lives in other ways!

We made up a quick, creamy dressing by combining 3 chopped anchovy fillets with 2 table spoons of mayonnaise, a squeeze of lemon, a glug of olive oil and black pepper.Then we set that aside whilst we grilled the veggies that we had brushed with a little olive oil and seasoning.

We chose some little gem lettuces which we quartered, some chicory sliced lengthways, a few spring onions, and some asparagus that had been blanched.

We also popped some vine tomatoes into the oven to roast having also drizzled them with a little oil, some sea salt and thyme. We roasted them on low heat for 45 minutes.

For a note of sweetness, we pan fried a pack of queenie scallops and then assembled everything on a platter, before spooning over some of the dressing.

This can be served warm or cold so is quite versatile and great if you have friends coming over.

To complement the vegetables we made some focaccia. We used a base recipe from Jamie Oliver (except we used the kitchenaid to do the hard work) and created our own topping of potato, rosemary, garlic and Taleggio cheese. Jamie’s Focaccia recipe can be found here. For our topping, blanched diced potatoes, and combined them in a bowl with some thinly sliced garlic cloves, cubed cheese, a little olive oil and salt and pepper. We ate the bread warm along with the warm ‘star gazing salad’.