• Smith & Daughters' vegan dinner recipes

Need more fun, more texture and more bling, bling in your salad routine? Try these deliciously hip, South American-inspired recipes from Fitzroy's Smith & Daughters.

Brazilian slaw

As far as salads go, you just don't get prettier, with more texture, more variety and more fun.

Serves 4–6

1½ tablespoons olive oil

150g fresh or frozen corn kernels

85g oyster mushrooms, roughly torn

1 tablespoon tamari or soy sauce

1 granny smith apple, cored and cut into thin matchsticks

1 large carrot, peeled and cut into thin matchsticks

½ red onion, thinly sliced

85g green pimento olives, sliced into thin rounds

300g thinly shredded purple cabbage

large handful flat-leaf parsley leaves

large handful coriander leaves

Dressing

250g aioli

zest and juice of 1 lime

1 small garlic clove, crushed

Garnish

3 corn tortillas, cut into 5mm

strips (or use roughly crushed tortilla chips)

olive oil spray

chilli and lime salt (see note)

METHOD

Preheat the oven to 180C.

Heat 2 teaspoons of the oil in a chargrill pan or small frying pan. Grill or sautee the corn until lightly charred. Remove from the heat and set aside.

Heat the remaining oil in a medium-sized frying pan over medium heat. Add the mushrooms and soy sauce and saut. until golden and slightly crisp. Set aside to cool.

To make the dressing, combine the ingredients in a bowl and whisk together until well combined.

To build the salad, combine all of the ingredients in a large salad bowl and add enough of the dressing to lightly coat.

Season with salt and pepper, to taste.

For the garnish, spray the tortilla strips with olive oil spray and dust with a little chilli and lime salt. Transfer to a baking tray and bake in the oven until crisp. If you are using tortilla chips, just sprinkle with the chilli and lime salt instead.

Build a small conical tower with the salad and top with the garnish. Big salads are always better, especially when tortilla chips are involved.

Note: Chilli and lime salt can be found at any Latin supermarket, or you can simply use salt instead.

Arco iris salad (seasonal tomato and quinoa salad)

Like most salads, this one is contingent on being super fresh. Make sure you use the most beautiful fresh tomatoes, avocado and asparagus possible. We love this salad, especially because when plated it's just this side of too beautiful to eat.

Serves 4–6

100g (½ cup) tricolour quinoa, rinsed (or any quinoa you have available)

1 bunch (about 12 spears) asparagus, woody ends snapped off

olive oil, for drizzling

2 large black tomatoes, cut into wedges

10 red cherry tomatoes, halved

10 yellow cherry tomatoes, halved

1 avocado, diced

small handful pickled onions

Smashed basil dressing (see recipe below)

handful cos (romaine) lettuce leaves, to serve

small handful basil leaves, to serve

For smashed basil dressing

30g basil leaves

juice of 1 medium-sized lemon

1 teaspoon sugar

1 tablespoon dijon mustard

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon black pepper

80ml (1/3 cup) olive oil

METHOD

For dressing

Place all of the ingredients except the olive oil in a blender or jug.

With the motor set to low or whisking by hand, slowly drizzle in the oil until well combined and emulsified. If you prefer a slightly thinner dressing, drizzle in a little hot water after the oil.

For salad

Place the rinsed quinoa in a small saucepan with a pinch of salt and 185ml (3/4 cup) cold water. Bring to the boil uncovered then, once boiling, cover and reduce the heat to a low simmer. Cook for 8–10 minutes, until the liquid has been absorbed and the quinoa is cooked through.

Drizzle the asparagus with olive oil and sprinkle with a little salt and pepper. Heat a chargrill pan over high heat and grill the spears until dark char marks appear all over.

Transfer the asparagus to a bowl and add the tomatoes, avocado and pickled onion. Drizzle over enough basil dressing to lightly coat and toss to combine. Arrange a few lettuce leaves in a serving bowl and top with the salad to the

side. Scatter over a few basil leaves and serve

This is an edited extract from Smith & Daughters: A Cookbook (that happens to be vegan) by Shannon Martinez & Mo Wyse, Hardie Grant Books RRP $48.00 (available in stores nationally).