One of my “Hilda-moments” – just in time to join in the fun of the latest photo challenge.
We have a TV Soap here in South Africa called “7de Laan” (7th Avenue). One of the characters is a reed thin lady called Hilda and she works in a Deli. She loves to try new combinations of things and it doesn’t always come out tasting good or even edible. I can relate. I love playing with combinations in the kitchen and rarely use a cookbook.
Last weekend I offered to make a green salad to take to a braai (barbeque) and I went shopping with my taste buds. Surprisingly enough it worked out pretty well. It had a nice crisp, sharp and “mellow” taste, which I craved today… so voila!
most of what goes into the salad
What I love about “green” salads is that you can put anything you like in it. This time I started my layers with banana at the bottom, add thin slices of onion, mushrooms sprinkled with ground black pepper. To keep the banana from discoloring I drip over some of the gherkin dill sauce. Next up are carrot sticks, thin slices of the various peppers and the diced apple. Follow this with the cocktail tomatoes cut in half. I usually add a little more black pepper at this stage. Now add a couple of gherkins, some feta cheese and top off with lettuce. Of course, to keep everything nice and moist I add some more of the dill sauce. I don’t really like salad dressing, preferring the natural taste of the goodies.
filling the pita
While the flavours in the salad blended I browned a small pita bread. Now I know one is supposed to use these things as a pocket, but I don’t like it. I always end up with dry bits. So I slice it open all the way through, spread a thin layer of margarine and a little bit of sweet chilly sauce on it while it is still warm.
salad pita
Fill it up with your salad and you’ve got yourself a salad pita for lunch!
clouded marbles 
Watched this very regularly when we still lived in South Africa and still keep up (some way) on our yearly visit
I don’t watch it regularly myself, but Hilda does kind of stick in the back of ones mind. 🙂
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I don’t watch, but wonder if they got the name from the famous ‘Hilda’s Where Is It?’ cookbook which came out some time round the early 1920s?
The salad looks good. Interesting that the gherkin sauce works for the bananas – I always use lemon juice on them as step 1 in preparing my fruit salads.
It’s always interesting how people select names, isn’t it?
As far as bananas goes – I think anything with a little acidity will keep it from browning. The dill sauce worked for the apple as well. And since my taste buds didn’t like the idea of lemon in the green salad… well 😉
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Actually, I think lemon would go quite well in a salad. But then, I also enjoy things like apple and pineapple chunklets with the greens.
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Mouth watering dishes and lovely presentation. I’d love to taste those cherries.
Nice post. Love it.
Thank you! For the visit and the comment 🙂
And thanks for reminding me that “cocktail” tomatoes are actually called “cherry” tomatoes. I never remember that! 😀
Grrrrmmmmm…. that’s my tummy growling… what a delicious looking meal!
Initially, I did a double-take when I saw the apple and the red onion – but, on asking my taste-buds to imagine the combination, they came back with a definite “Yummmmmmmmmm!”
Banana and gherkin, though…. that’s taking a bit more imagination….
Mind you, we are people who like to make pizzas with tomatoes, red / orange / yellow peppers, banana and bacon as toppings… (no cheese)… so I really can’t talk. 🙂