Most of our country is experiencing warmer weather as spring approaches. In my kitchen the signs of spring is obvious in my style of serving vegetables.

Right now I’m craving fresh salads. When we had one sunny day last week I could not wait to prepare steak and salad.

You can really play around with ingredients as you please, but I usually believe in less is more when it comes to the selection for a salad. This one is also fairly mono-tone, which I always tend to go for!

You start by blanching the broccoli and beans. I always blanch my veggies in the microwave, it’s so quick and easy. Place the prepared vegies in a shallow (rather spread them out) microwaveable dish, add about 100ml water to 300ml veggies, cover with a lid or plastic wrap. Microwave on full power for 2 minutes. It is important to drain the water off immediately and either pour over about 150ml cold water (from the fridge) or the dressing, as in the case of this recipe.

The alternative is to blanch the veggies in boiling water for 2 minutes, drain and add cold water as above.

The dressing calls for Teriyaki sauce. I always have a bottle of shop bought or home-made Teriyaki in the fridge.

I like the sprinkling of sesame seeds, but these may be replaced with chopped nuts. Cashews go well with the Asian flavours.

Turn it into a main meal by adding sliced Roast chicken or steak

Recipe here (includes home made Teriyaki Sauce Recipe)