Healthy Simple Meals: Herbed Potato Salad, Pasta and Pineapple Salad

You are defined by what you eat as Brillat-Savarin says, 'Tell me what you eat, and I will tell you who you are'. And nothing surpasses healthy simple meals as a dietary approach to wellness, which includes your physical, mental and social well-being.

Herbed Potato Salad

At Ballymaloe Cookery School in Ireland, taking center stage is Darina Allen's cuisine that brings out the natural goodness of simple basic foods.

In particular her Herbed Potato Salad recipe, the favorite potato salad of Gourmet Magazine, highlights the versatility of potatoes as almost any type of the tuber can be used.

Simmered whole in their jackets, in plenty of salted water, potatoes are cut into pieces when cooled; then tossed with fresh flat-leaved parsley and thyme, virgin olive oil; and seasoned with salt and pepper. That is typically the Irish chef's way with foods.

However, a similar potato salad recipe from First Cookbook seems to fall short of that cookery school founder's standards. First, only small red potatoes are to be used. Second, the crushed peppercorns and cilantro leaves sound fine but not that tablespoon of butter. Also, the instruction to microwave the potatoes in a glass plate covered with a plastic wrap does not go down well with health concerns.

Easy Pasta Salad

Further, Chef Darina's Spaghetti Alla Chiummenzana shows you how to make a spicy tomato sauce of: cherry tomatoes, garlic, fresh basil and oregano, dried red chillies and olive oil. So it boils down to a dish of spaghetti with sauce and basil leaves garnish - it makes a world of difference to the funky sauces and toppings that go with the pastas from fancy Simply d cafes.

Additionally, it also does away with Lelord's homemade bottled Sweet Basil Dressing of: chopped basil, garlic, lemon juice, olive oil and salt.

Here again, a comparison with 2 pasta recipes from Readers' Digest Association (RDA) shows that Darina Allen steers clear of processed foods in her pasta dish. One RDA recipe uses a paste of cornflour blended with yoghurt as green sauce for tagliatelle; while the item 'bought tomato paste' is found listed among the ingredients of the other.

Pineapple Salad

There are 2 auspicious Nyonya Chinese dishes that can be easily whittled down to one: the Asian Pineapple Salad where tangy local pineapple wedges are tossed in spicy sambal sauce; and Sweet Stir Fry of cucumber stir-fried in plum sauce and vinegar, and topped with red and green chillies.

A combined dish, the pineapple salad with cucumber, seasoned with a bit of salt, becomes common fare enjoyed by everybody. More importantly, it steals Darina Allen's style, being easy to make, and requiring minimal ingredients.

Three cheers for that Irish lady chef for healthy, simple meals!