chorizo, feta and tomato salad

the weather in london has been very spring-like recently and i’ve really been wanting to make the most of this with my cooking. having said that, this salad was also a bit of an effort is using up various things which had been lurking in the fridge or freezer for a bit longer than i’d have liked.

i sliced a couple of chorizo sausages (the raw, cooking ones) and fried them in a little oil until they started to release their own oils. i then added  some fennel seeds, sliced red onion and red pepper and let these cook until the vegetables were soft and had begun to caramelise, so they added a lovely sweetness to the salad.

salt (not too much as the feta will be salty), pepper, a generous glug of balsamic vinegar and a tin of cannellini beans were the next additions and once everything had warmed through i added some halved cherry tomatoes which i let cook for just a few minutes as i wanted to keep their fresh, raw flavour (unlike a lot of tomatoes at this time of year, they were really flavoursome).

if i’d had any parsley or basil, i’d have added this now, just before serving in a large bowl, scattered with crumbled feta cheese and some fresh crusty bread – the first meal of 2014 that i’ve eaten in the garden.