Bocconcini Cheese Salad
Bocconcini cheese is small bite-size mozzarella cheese; they are semi-soft, white mild cheeses. Bocconcini is an Italian word which means mouthfuls. They are so much fun to work with; they not only look like pearls but even have a very smooth texture. The white pearls just stand out with colour combination of green (herbs/avocado), red (tomatoes), brown (beans/nuts) and black (olives) they are treat to our eyes and mouth.
You can really get creative with this recipe, it’s an open end kind where you can feel free to add and subtract ingredients according to your taste buds.
I have used ingredients which I and my family like, for instance, garlic. Adding garlic is an option, but I love to use garlic, as the flavour it creates after being cooked is something I relish.
In this recipe, I have used dried basil & dill and fresh parsley & mint. It depends on the availability or your palate. You can use all fresh herbs or all dried ones. If you do not prefer basil, try replacing it with oregano or if you plan to use all dried herbs, you can try adding 2 tsp of mixed herbs instead of individual herbs.
In case, you do not have cherry tomatoes, use regular tomatoes. Roast them and then dice them to bite size pieces.
I used the four beans can from the supermarket which contains the chickpeas, green baby lima beans, great northern beans and small red kidney beans. If you do not prefer these beans or do not have them handy, feel free to replace with beans of your choice.
You can even skip the step of cooking the beans with tomatoes on the stove and instead use fresh ones. I opt for the taste of roasted tomatoes as they give a smoky flavour and when cooked with beans they leave their juices and beans become more flavoursome. When we combine the hot beans mixture to the cold cheese, the hot and cold combination makes a perfect warm salad.
Bocconcini Cheese Salad
Ingredients:
- 220 grams bocconcini cheese
- 5 Cherry tomatoes
- 16 – 20 Kalamata Olives
- ½ Avocado peeled, pitted and diced
- 1 can – 400 grams four beans
- 1 big garlic clove crushed (Optional)
- 3 tbsp Lemon juice
- Fresh mint chopped finely
- Fresh parsley chopped finely
- 1 tsp dried dill
- 1 tsp dried basil
- 2 tbsp pine nuts
- 1 tsp black pepper
- Salt to taste
- Alfalfa sprouts t garnish
Method:
- Drain the bocconcini cheese, making sure it dries off completely.
- Put the cheese in a large mixing or salad bowl, and then add olive oil, dried dill and basil, fresh chopped parsley and mint, lemon juice, salt and pepper.
- At this stage; you might find that the lemon and salt is too much, but remember we will be adding other ingredients later.
- Marinate the cheese and keep it in refrigerator; from one hour to overnight.
- Roast the cherry tomatoes on the stove, similar to how we did for GM Diet Chicken and Tomato. Once roasted halve them.
- In a pan on medium flame roast pine nuts till they get dark brown marks. Then add four beans, drain and wash the beans before adding. Add the crushed garlic, halved tomatoes and sauté till you can’t smell raw garlic. Remove from the flame and keep it separate.
- Remove the marinated cheese from the refrigerator and add the bean mixture to it, you can add the hot mixture.
- Then add olives and avocado to it, check for taste and adjust accordingly.
- Garnish with the alfalfa sprouts. You can serve it hot or refrigerate it.
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Food Kalakaar 
Gorgeous recipe!
Thank you for stopping by and .. Appreciate your kind comment 😊
Yum, I would like to see how it would go with a Vegan nut cheese instead. I might get creative and try it one of these days! 🙂
Do share the pictures.. Thanks for the kind comments
Wow, this looks so pretty and so full of flavor! Perfect for summer, can’t wait to try it!
Thank you for your kind words 🙂
It has fiber, vibrance and best of all-CHEESE! I am definitely taking this to a cook out this summer!
Thanks for stopping by and your lovely comment 🙂