Mackerel and green bean salad with harissa dressing

Commercial harissa varieties can vary. If yours isn’t very spicy, add a bit of cayenne pepper to it to enhance the kick. If you don't want to use mackerel, you could used canned tuna or anchovies.

• serves

  4

• prep

  30 minutes

• cook

  5 minutes

• difficulty

  Easy

Ingredients

• 1 medium baguette, crusts removed, torn into 2 cm chunks (110 g net)
• 1 tsp ground turmeric, mixed with 1½ tbsp water
• 230 ml olive oil, plus extra to serve
• 6 mackerel fillets, cut widthways into 2 cm slices (350 g net)
• salt and black pepper
• 1 baby cos (gem) lettuce, leaves torn into large pieces
• 1 small red onion, peeled and very thinly sliced (90 g net)
• 3 Romano capsicum (peppers), roasted, cooled, seeded and cut into 2 cm slices (or use commercial roasted peppers from a can or jar)
• 50 g dried black olives, pitted and torn in half
• 200 g green (French) beans, trimmed, blanched for 4 minutes, refreshed and drained well
• 50 g harissa paste
• 2¼ tbsp lemon juice
• 3 tsp parsley leaves, roughly chopped
• 4 semi hard-boiled eggs, peeled and quartered

Instructions

Place the baguette pieces in a medium mixing bowl and use your hand to toss while slowly pouring in the turmeric water, to lightly stain all the bread. Set aside.

Heat 200 ml of the olive oil in a large sauté pan over medium heat. Cook the mackerel pieces, in 2 batches, for 1–2 minutes, or until slightly curled and cooked through. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to paper towel. Lightly season with salt and black pepper and set aside.

Cook the baguette pieces in the hot oil, stirring, for 3–4 minutes, or until crunchy and golden-brown. Use a slotted spoon to transfer to the paper towel with the fish. Don’t discard the remaining oil.

In a large mixing bowl, combine the lettuce, red onion, capsicum, olives and beans.  Add the fish, croutons, remaining olive oil and a healthy grind of black pepper. Toss gently and then transfer to a large shallow serving bowl. 

Whisk the harissa, lemon juice and 3 tsp of the cooking oil in a small bowl. Spoon this over the salad, scatter over the parsley and finally top with the egg. Finish the salad with salt and pepper and drizzle with the extra olive oil.

Cook's Notes

Oven temperatures are for conventional; if using fan-forced (convection), reduce the temperature by 20˚C. | We use Australian tablespoons and cups: 1 teaspoon equals 5 ml; 1 tablespoon equals 20 ml; 1 cup equals 250 ml. | All herbs are fresh (unless specified) and cups are lightly packed. | All vegetables are medium size and peeled, unless specified. | All eggs are 55-60 g, unless specified.