I am still trying to find my way around my new kitchen and I am blaming the kitchen for the fact I ran almost a minute and a half over the seven minute timeframe today.  Really it’s my own fault, one of the tricks to cooking quickly is to be prepared. I usually have everything I am going to need to cook the meal sitting out on the bench top before I begin. Instead today I was scrambling about for a chopping board and a grater part way thought cooking.

Additionally, I chopped my sweet potato way too thick, so it took longer to cook.  Some of the pieces where almost 1cm thick when they should have been a third of that.  Quick cooking like this on the sandwich press not only requires all the pieces to be thin, but also largely the same size.  Using one of those fancy mandolin slicers would be ideal, but additional kitchen equipment is not in the budget until I have recovered from the move.

The sweet starchy flavour of sweet potatoes also balances out the fennel in this salad, so I have not included a dressing, just a drizzle of olive oil and a squeeze of lemon.   As a kid the aniseed-y taste of fennel really put me off, but I have since learned that taste can be great if its not too overpowering, fennel grilled and with lemon fennel tastes delicious.

I make a lot of meals using the sandwich press to grill food quickly, for example check out my Warm chickpea and tomato salad or follow this blog to get emailed more tasty meals to cook in seven minutes.