Chicken & peach salad

As you know it was my birthday last week and therefore I had a small get together with some of my closest friends. It was a really nice cosy girls' night in and to be hones, very few things trump the combination of great company, great wine and great food. My friends have known for a quite some time that I really enjoy cooking and I received three really nice cookbooks from them (I might have dropped a hit ;) ) and as with all new things I was eager to try them out! So, instead of telling myself that I'll do the next dish from one of the books, I just noted down the ingredients and decided to make a delicious salad for dinner tonight.

I have to say I've always been very sceptical about salad dressings and whenever I read a salad recipe which contains mayonnaise I get the feeling that I'd be better off eating something else as this salad won't be as healthy as salads should be. However, as I was in a bit of a rush today I didn't have time to weigh the pros and cons of this salad and as it looked appetising enough on the picture I just decided to give it a go. In hindsight, I'm very happy that I did so, because the result was delicious. And for all those of you who try to watch what you eat, which I'm trying to do now as well, because I need to look good for the wedding (even though it's like 2,5 years away), there is no need to worry. At first the amount of mayo might seem like a lot, but if you divide it between the portion sizes it is not that frightening anymore. I'm obviously not telling you that you should soak your salads in mayo from now on, but just talking from my own positive experience, having a homemade dressing with some mayo in it won't kill you and it actually tastes really nice when mixed together with natural yogurt.

So, a little bit about the salad. I absolutely love this dressing it goes really well with the other ingredients. This is a very tasty, fresh and summery (and light!) salad which could be served as a starter or a side dish at a BBQ or just enjoyed on its own for light lunch or dinner. I know that where I am right now it is summer all year long, but when I lived back in Europe the beginning of March already started to create a spring feeling and thinking of all of you who live in the northern hempisphere this salad is great for helping you to get into the spring mood, brighten up your day and make you look forward to those warm summer evenings in the garden with goods friends and food.

Ingredients
(Serves 4 - approx 370 cal per serving)
- 1 roast chicken leg (thigh and drumstick) or use 200g chicken breast roast ham instead
- 825g canned peach
- 1 large apple
- 1 small green cabbage
- 50g walnuts

Dressing:
- 2 dl fat free natural yogurt
- 1 dl light mayonnaise
- 1 tsp salt
- 1 tsp sugar
- 1/2 tsp ground ginger
- Some pepper

Directions
Chop up the chicken into small pieces and place in a bowl. Cut the peaches into cubes and add to the chicken. Then slice the apple and cabbage into thin strips and add to the bowl. You can either mix the ingredients or keep them layered (would look nice in a see-through glass bowl). Then prepare the dressing by mixing all the ingredients together and pour it over the salad. Top it off with crushed walnuts and enjoy!

Recipe from "100 Linnuliharooga" (100 Rooga)