I love a good salad for dinner during the summertime – unfortunately, the husband does not. He wants something ‘substantial’. I think that this salad, served with some boiled wild rice ticked all the boxes the other night. These ‘Ready Roasted – Roast Duck Breasts’ from Luv-a-Duck are always super moist and tender {and perfect for little mouths without too many teeth}. Not to mention that they really cut down on your meal preparation time.
There is just something about lychees that scream ‘summer’ to me. As I peel and pop a lychee into my mouth, memories of sitting outside Penshurst Swimming Pool in early January flood back to me. My Mum would always take us to the pool for intensive weeks of swimming lessons during the summer holidays, so much, that we knew all of the pool management staff. After my sister and I had finished swimming, my Mum would give us money to walk across the road to get an ice-cream, whilst my brother swam.
We would duck across the road and purchase lychees with our ice-cream money and sit there happily eating our guilty pleasure. It wasn’t until a couple of years ago, when we finally told our Mum what we used to do – we wondered why we had thought that we were going to get into trouble for purchasing fruit instead of ice-cream. Isn’t it funny how children’s minds work?
Lychees originated in south-east China and grow in tropical and subtropical regions on large evergreen trees with long, lush green leaves. Here in Australia they grow from Far North Queensland down to northern New South Wales. Fortunately for us, this extensive growing region gives us a particularly long season, from November through to early April. And production here is expanding. A large number of trees have been planted, mostly in the northern Queensland sugarcane regions, where farmers are diversifying into other crops.
You can prepare your veggies, the lychees and the dressing whilst your little ones are napping. Then simply pop your duck breasts in the oven with some sliced wonton wrappers, tossed in a little sesame oil, and cook as per the instructions on the Luv-a-Duck packet. Dinner ready in a matter of minutes #happymealtimes2016
- 10 wonton wrappers
- 2 duck breasts
- 12 lychees
- 1 bunch of coriander
- 1 small red chilli
- 4 spring onions
- 2 cucumbers
- 2 carrots
- 1/2 teaspoon of five-spice powder
- 1/4 cup of honey
- 2 tablespoons sweet soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon soy sauce
- 1 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
- sesame oil
- PREPARE – Using a peeler, slice the cucumber and the carrot into ribbons. Peel the lychees and tear into pieces. Place the sliced coriander root, spring onions, red chilli, five spice powder, honey, sweet soy sauce, soy sauce, rice wine vinegar and a few drops of sesame oil into a bowl and mix to form the dressing.
- ROAST – Preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Place the duck breast and the wonton wrappers, cut into 1cm ribbons, tossed in a little sesame oil, onto a baking sheet and cook as per the instructions on the Luv-a-Duck packet. Allow the duck to rest before slicing.
- TOSS – Place the duck meat, lychees, coriander leaves, cucumber, carrot and dressing into a bowl and toss to combine. Serve immediately with some boiled wild rice.
Do you enjoy lychees? Have you ever tried a lychee martini {if not, get onto it stat}? Have you tried any of the Luv-a-Duck products? If you have whipped up one of my recipes, I would love for you to share it on social media – don’t forget to use the hashtag #goodfoodweek.
Thai has a dish called duck and lychee curry. I think having them together in a salad would be yummy too!
How yum are lychees and would pair so well with the duck meat.
It’s been ages since I’ve cooked duck. I used to love this Sassy Duck recipe I had in town at Chintaria, was the yummiest duck I’d ever eaten, a rich soy sauce on a bed of coriander.
Was heaven.
Lychee’s are so delicious, whiz them up with frozen grapes, mint & coconut water and you have yourself a yummy summer drink too. 🙂
duck and lychee together – yum! and love the idea of using pre cooked duck breasts, what a quick way to make a tasty meal
So easy with the pre-cooked duck breast – and always so juicy and tender!
I would never have thought to combine these but it looks great. I’ve got some lychees stored away in the freezer for cocktails but this is another great use for them. Thanks for linking up to YWF.
YES! Save all the lychees for cocktails Vicki – I’ll be around on the double 😉
What a yummy, refreshing but also substantial (haha! Men…) salad! Perfect for the summer as you say, Shari. Funny that you used to buy lychees instead of ice cream! My Mum always tells me a little story about how when I was a toddler, I swapped my lollipop for the piece of capsicum she was eating. So I guess some kids naturally tend towards healthier foods. If only all kids, right?! Then every parent’s job would be just that much easier!
Oh man – I am lucky that the boys do enjoy their veggies right now. In fact I just served up an afternoon plate of carrot sticks, capsicum sticks, cucumber rounds and grapes – but I wonder if it will be this easy as they get older?
Yum! This sounds gorgeous! Love your story about buying fruit with your ice-cream money. Hilarious!! Love how kids’ minds work. 🙂
Thanks Eb. It really was delicious and enjoyed by all. I only hope that one day, my children will love fruit that much 🙂