The perfect sides

Tonight's supper was all about the sides with are often neglected and treated as nothing more than a side dish...lol. Tonight I made the perfect roast tato, alot of roast tatos are all dry and rock hard on the outside and soft and fluffy inside but I like the soft and fluffy all over. I also made parmesan broccoli, it's a lite dish not smothered in cheese sauce and it's very very nice mostly cause it does not weigh a ton in your tummy. My last side is 1 that may have you think " she is nuts" but it is really good when I make it I usually make alot because trenton turns into a pig when he sees it. It is his favorite salad in the world. It's a avo, biltong and apple salad with fruity herbed yogurt dressing. The chicken was just plain breasts marinated in red wine and peri peri sauce nothing special there so not gonna focus on them.

Roast tatos with fresh parsley coating

1 kg new potatoes - I also add about 2 normal chopped up potatoes for texture and colour.  If you look at the pic you can see the big tatos are the darker coloured ones.
Sweet basil and sun dried tomato olive oil or any other olive oil you have on hand.
A little turmeric which gives them s lovely golden colour but does nothing to the taste
1tsp brown sugar also does nothing to the taste but helps the caramelization process along beautifully
Sea salt and black pepper
Chopped parsley

Firstly I steam the tatos in a Glad Steam Bag (love them, i use them so much in my kitchen) for 7 minutes so they are basically cooked through.
Once done I drain them and throw them around in the sieve to "rough them up" a little which makes them look good once baked.
Put them in a bowl and sprinkle with oil, turmeric, sugar and S & P be generous on the S & P. Toss the lot around and make sure every tato Is well covered. Place on baking dish and bake on 180 for 10 minutes, than take out snd turn them over to brown the other side. Do that about 3x making sure they go nice and crispy around the edges.
Once they are done take them out and sprinkle them with chopped parsley and toss again.
They are really delish and morish.

Parmesan and lemon broccoli

1 head broccoli sliced/broken up
1 bag grated parmesan cheese
1 lemon
S & P
Butter not margarine, real butter

Steam broccoli for 7 minutes till tender but still green
Once it's steams throw in butter, I don't like to overuse butter and I seldom buy it because it's so expensive what I do is ask for butter with every restaurant/take away meal and pop it in my bag when the meal is done. See I am thrifty lol.
I add 2 pats of butter and let it melt in, add the cheese, lemon juice to taste and S&P and only then give it a toss about. Don't stir it with a spoon just a quick toss around so you don't break the florets too much and wind up with green mushy looking broccoli. When you dish up put a small blob of butter on the top and sprinkle with cheese once more and add a squirt of lemon juice if u like. Crack some black pepper on top as a final touch.

Avo, biltong and apple salad with fruity herbed yogurt dressing.

Dressing
Make the dressing 1st and let it stand while you do the rest.
1 small tub vanilla yogurt, yes you read that correctly vanilla not plain. The sweetness of the vanilla is the key to why this salad is so good.
Chopped up parsley
Raisins also chopped up roughly
Mix it all together and put in bowl to sit and look pretty while you make the salad.

Salad
3 avos
1 apple
Chunk of dry biltong
Roughly chop avo and a sweet apple, this is not really great with those little green sour apples, the best apple in my opinion is golden delicious or pink lady apples. The apple pieces must be half the size of the avo pieces the avo is the star of this salad and the apple is just the underpaid co-star with a grudge. :)
Slice the biltong up into the thinnest slices you can manage or if you have pre-sliced then chop it up a little, you don't want big chunks in this salad. Keep a few slivers aside to use on top of salad one you dish up.

Put the salad in a bowl and pour over the dressing and stir it about gently so you don't have apple flavoured guacamole. Sprinkle the top with the leftover slivers.

Now all your sides are done, dish up and serve. I am not a huge fan of smothering veggies in heavy cream or cheese sauces the lighter the better for us. :)