Chicken and cucumber salad with pul biber and tahini lime dressing

Anyone who is a fan of Sabrina Ghayour will be thrilled that there's a successor to her best-selling book Persiana. Actually there have been several but this one relates back directly with a collection of easy, but supremely tasty family-friendly recipes.

This is for anyone who loves a chicken salad which certainly includes me.

Sabrina writes: "Although I love salads, for me they need to have bags of flavour and tick many boxes. Fresh, zingy, crunchy, sometimes sweet and spicy – I always need a salad to be a filling meal in its own right.

This stunner using leftover chicken is a nod to chicken satay salads but using the Middle Eastern staples of tahini and cucumber, and we Persians have an unhealthy obsession with cucumber!

It really is refreshing and full of flavour – perfect for sharing, or not…

SERVES 2–4

1 large cucumber, peeled and cut into thin batons or strips using a vegetable peeler

2 cooked chicken breasts, shredded (or use chicken thigh or leg meat)

3 spring onions, thinly sliced diagonally from root to tip

1 teaspoon pul biber chilli flakes

handful of salted peanuts or cashew nuts

handful of fresh coriander leaves

Maldon sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

For the dressing

1 heaped tablespoon tahini

juice of 1 lime

1 tablespoon light soy sauce

1 heaped teaspoon clear honey

Arrange the cucumber, chicken and spring onions on a large platter and season with a little salt and pepper.

Mix all the dressing ingredients together in a small bowl and drizzle over the salad.

Sprinkle with the pul biber, scatter over the nuts and coriander leaves and serve. This needs no accompaniment.

What to drink: I'd probably go for an off-dry white like a pinot gris or riesling with this. Or a viognier FB

Persiana Everyday by Sabrina Ghayour is published by Aster (£26). Photography by Kris Kirkham

Spicy chicken salad

We normally think of lunchboxes in terms of kids' packed lunches but James Ramsden has come up with this a brilliant book of imaginative dishes you can take to work. Called - appropriately enough - Love your Lunchbox.

Spicy chicken salad

Serves 2

This is based on a south-east Asian salad, larb gai, which is, like much of the food in them parts, pretty fiery. This is a pared-back version, though you could always ramp up the chilli quotient. Should keep your colleagues off your lunch, if nothing else.

Prep time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 7 minutes

Freezable? Yes

2–3 skinless, boneless chicken thighs

1 shallot, peeled and chopped

stalks from a bunch of coriander (cilantro), finely chopped

½ stalk of lemongrass, finely chopped

zest of ½ lime

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely chopped

1 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1 tbsp groundnut (peanut) or vegetable oil, plus extra for cooking

4 large-ish Little Gem lettuce leaves (outer leaves, as opposed to inner)

coriander (cilantro) leaves

For the dressing

juice of ½ lime

1 tbsp Thai fish sauce

1 tsp soft brown sugar

bottom half of a Thai chilli, finely chopped

AT HOME

Put the chicken, shallot, coriander stalks, lemongrass, lime zest, chilli, fish sauce and 1 tbsp oil in a blender and pulse until the chicken is well minced. Alternatively, finely and thoroughly chop with a knife.

Heat a splash of oil in a sauté pan or saucepan over a medium–high heat and add the chicken mixture. Cook, stirring regularly, for about 7 minutes, until cooked through and crisp in places. Set aside to cool, then store in the fridge for up to 2 days.

Mix the dressing ingredients together and store in a jar.

IN EACH LUNCHBOX

A portion of chicken (in a microwaveable vessel); lettuce leaves, coriander; dressing.

TO FINISH

Reheat the chicken in a microwave on medium for 3–4 minutes. Serve on lettuce leaves with a few coriander leaves and a spoonful of dressing.

What to drink:

Assuming you're taking this to work I'm taking it for granted you're not going to be drinking alcohol but any sharp, citrussy soft drink would be a good match. Even sparkling water with a slice of lemon or lime. If you're making it at home it would go down very well with a glass of Aussie riesling.

Recipe extracted from Love your Lunchbox: 101 Do-ahead recipes to liven up lunchtime by James Ramsden, published by Pavilion. Photograph © Martin Poole