Sweet and sour fruit salad

This is a really unique and refreshing summery salad that looks harder to prepare than it really is.  Once you’ve tried it once you’ll be far more confident the next time.  The main thing is to make sure you have a good sharp knife (this is a good excuse to get out your sharpening tool!)

Ingredients

• 4 limes
• 6 eating apples
• cucumber (roughly 3 inches)
• 1 teaspoon of caster sugar
• bunch mint leaves

Method

Using a chopping board cut both ends off of each lime.

Place the flat end of each lime onto the board and slice off all of the skin and pith, and discard.

Then, using the tip of your knife, slice between each segment (until you get to the centre of the lime) to separate them.  Using the sharp edge of your knife, use a scooping motion to prize the segment away from the membrane so that it should pop out leaving you with just the juicy lime flesh.  Try to keep the segment whole but don’t worry too much if it falls apart.

Repeat with all the segments and all the limes, placing them all into a tupperware.

Peel and core an apple and slice it into quarters.  Cut each quarter into 5 or 6 slices (they should be around ¼ of an inch / 5mm at the thickest part) and place with the limes in the tupperware, toss and place on the tupperware lid.

Do the same thing with another 4 apples (keeping in the tupperware as you go stops the apples from going brown although it’s quite natural for them to yellow slightly).

Slice the cucumber into thin circles and then cut these into rough stick shapes.  Throw in with the apples and lime and toss.  Replace the tupperware lid.

Peel and core the final apple, put the apple flesh into a processor with all of the lime membranes and any loose bits of lime flesh left behind (everything except the pith and peel) and blitz.

Place a sieve over a bowl and empty the blitzed apple/lime into the sieve and press with the back of a large spoon to get out as much apple and lime juice as you can.

Mix the caster sugar with the juice and then toss this in with the lime wedges and sliced apple.

Finally, chop the mint leaves, throw in with the salad and toss one final time.

Tips

Serve in something a little more aesthetically pleasing than a tupperware!

Trivia

You might wish to avoid eating cucumbers if you are allergic to pollen or aspirin. They can cause an unpleasant mouth itch. The Roman emperor Tiberius grew cucumbers in carts and had slaves move them around so that they always had the sun on them.