You know we love cookbooks so the minute we got Eat & Make by Paul Lowe, aka Sweet Paul, we started planning lunches, dinners and slow-paced breakfasts. We really love his approach to food and entertaining: he believes perfection is boring and his philosophy is simple: few ingredients and easy steps. So following his advice we prepared and easy delicious Spring menu that maybe doesn’t look perfect in pictures but was utterly delicious and pretty easy to prepare.

Let’s start with the chicken. You’ll need:
4 organic chicken thighs
1 lemon, cut into wedges
1 cup mixed pitted olives (green and black)
2 tablespoons drained capers
The juice of one lemon
Extra virgin olive oil
Salt and pepper

Preheat the oven to 200º C.
Place the chicken skin side up in a baking dish.
Scatter the lemon wedges, olives and capers on top of the chicken.
Pour the lemon juice and a nice glug of olive oil over the chicken and sprinkle with salt and pepper.
Bake until golden. In our oven that was almost 50 minutes.

While the chicken is in the oven, you can prepare the salad. You’ll need:
Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1 large zucchini, thinly sliced lengthwise
A few handfulls of baby spinach
A few walnuts, toasted
1 cup crumbled fresh goat cheese
Sherry vinegar
Salt & pepper.

First, drizzle some extra virgin olive oil in a large skillet and cook the zucchini slices, turning once, until golden. Season with salt and pepper.
Combine the zucchini, baby spinachs, walnuts and goat cheese in a bowl.
Mix three table spoons of extra virgin olive oil with one spoon of cherry vinegar and drizzle the mix over the salad.

The capers, olives and lemon of the chicken pair beautifully with the goat cheese and the earthy flavour of the spinachs. With these two recipes together you can create a very nice menu that will be a fantastic choice for a Spring lunch with friends. The chicken will be tender with a soft lemony flavour that will combine perfectly with the slighty stronger flavours of the salad. Gather your love ones around the table and enjoy this delicious menu with a glass of ice cold white wine and a nice conversation!