Sumac lamb & ruby red grapefruit salad

Spring has quite certainly sprung and brought a big-ass wind of change with it.

Apart from some health concerns which I should have figured out by Monday (in the mean time I have been told to eat 'alkaline' foods), my husband and I have been as busy as bees getting our new store ready.

For the last 2 years we have run our online business from home which has allowed us to save on outgoings and be able to work as we need to. The downside is that it means we have customers coming into our home (something I still haven't gotten used to) and if we want to go on a holiday, we have to halt the business until we get back. Another reason is that the business takes up all the spare rooms in our house (and sometimes the main ones), and although we aren't planning to yet, someday we will be trying to have a child, and that child will need it's own room.

The store will provide us with the flexibility to be able to travel, and our home to be only a home. The downside is that I will no longer be working with my husband and therefore be with him 24/7 as we will need to train someone else so that we can both leave (we are planning a one month European vacation next year, hence the extra push to find someone to run the business for that month).

I'm not going to lie, I don't think I will like being away from my husband 8 hours a day when we haven't been separated for most of the 5 years we have been together. It will however be much easier to keep the house in order now that he won't be here all day to mess it up (and I will have a fuller head of hair now that I won't be pulling it out as much). I will also have more time to cook (big +) and do all those things I don't, like yoga, reading for fun, stock market trading, dancing around the house like a dork with a facial mask on (I just can't 'let go' when my husbands around, much too embarrassing, takes me out of the 'zone') etc. And at least I have my dog Yoshi for company so I won't be lonely.

Overall, the feeling in the house is one of excitement and anticipation, we are bouncing around like bunnies getting everything ready for the 'big move'. To keep our energy levels up I have been trying to get more 'healthy' food into us, so the sweets and heavy dinners loaded with cream and butter have taken a back seat lately. Salads have been something we rarely eat with our dinner so I have put a big emphasis on eating some this week. I can happily eat a substantial salad for dinner and feel satisfied, hubby though needs something meaty to go with it otherwise he feels slightly cheated.


ease: 5/5.
prep time: 3mins - do salad whilst lamb is cooking and resting.
cooking time: 15mins - includes resting for 5mins.
total: 18mins.

taste: 4/5. I couldn't get watercress so I substituted with some gourmet leaves. I imagine it would give the dish a more pepperyness taste. The crisp salad gives way to sour, sweet and lastly bitter, juicy grapefruit which is counterbalanced by the smooth, creamy avocado. The taste of the pistachios is lost but they do add a nice crunch. I didn't care for the onions (but I'm not a fan of raw onion). Ryan said the lemony sumac lamb went well with the flavours of the salad. Overall this salad is quite sour.

would I make it again: Yes.

recipe: Sumac lamb & ruby red grapefruit salad