Zucchini Flower Salad with Feta and Dried Herring

While the summer heat pervades the whole house, the kitchen doesn't look as inviting as it was when the weather was a bit cooler. August is usually the month when I would leave my oven to rest until September again. Salads take a major part of our summer diet with lots of water or ice cold drinks. Fresh light plates with seasonal vegetables are easier to digest and much better this hot season. And I guess like you, we are all in constant search for a delicious salad mixture to keep the flavors diverse for the whole hot season.

This Zucchini Flower Salad with Feta and Dried Herring is a product of my approach in putting something Filipino in a Mediterranean salad. Dried herring or locally called tuyo is something very typical in the Philippines and it's flavor is quite pungent. In fact, it is always dipped in vinegar and eaten with white rice to curb its intensity. In this salad, I tore them to small pieces then mixed them with the salad to distribute the flavor and just to give the whole dish the right amount of saltiness. Paired with the mild flavor of feta cheese, the whole composition was delectable. 

Pre-cooked preserved dried herring is close to impossible in acquiring in Rome unless I go to the Philippines myself to get a few bottles or a friend coming from there takes one for me. I have yet to try this with anchovies, which I think can go anyway but it wouldn't have that special flavor that the dried herring gives. A good candidate for replacing the Filipino dried herring is the Bornholm smoked herring from Denmark. They are cured with salt and sugar then smoked afterwards. 

More Summer Salad Recipes:

Healthy Greek Salad  

Pea, Melon and Feta Salad with Elderflower Vinaigrette  

Spring Green Veggie Salad with Crushed Raspberry Dressing 

Zucchini Flower Salad with Feta and Dried Herring

Serves 2

Ingredients:  

• 8 fresh zucchini flowers
• Handful of baby lettuce (or any salad of your choice)
• 8 - 10 cherry tomatoes, halved
• 40 grams feta cheese, crumbled
• 4 fillets or about 3 tablespoons of pre-cooked preserved dried herring (can be replaced with other kinds of salted dried fish adjusting the amount according to the taste), torn to small pieces
• Extra virgin olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• Salt (optional)

Directions:

1. Take away the pistils and calyx of the flowers then rinse them under the running water and dry carefully.
2. In a salad bowl, all the ingredients together, being careful not to destroy the flowers. 
3. Serve fresh.