Parrothead Salad - featuring this season's blueberries

Goat's cheese, beetroot, pistachios and nuts grace this parrothead salad

Cake in Chestnut Hill is the cafe attached to Robertson's the Florist - one of the landmarks on what is fondly called "The Ave" (or Germantown Avenue to those not in the know).

The baked goods - cupcakes, special occasion cakes, cookies, et al - on sale at this treasure of a coffee shop are exemplary.





The lunch menu includes such dazzlers as a goat cheese and beetroot salad.

Cake's salad is actually a version of a Parrothead Salad, which I decided to replicate for a summer gathering at the Jersey Shore, using the freshest ingredients from our local farm stand.

I fell in love with the salad and when I started researching recipes, hoping to emulate this awesome salad, I also fell love with the name of  Parrothead Salad.   I just can't stop saying it, or making it!

There are endless versions of this salad online.

Parrothead Salad is a catch all term which includes any brightly colored salad featuring raw nuts, blueberries, fruit and the odd vegetable: beetroot, because of its stunning coloration, seems to be a favorite.

Here are two recipes I liked the sound of.

• The first is from a perennial source, allrecipes.com, 
• the second version also throws raisins into the mix, recipe here.

This is my version, which comprises cooked beetroot, mango, blueberries, goats cheese, pistachio nuts, red onion, bacon bits and a light honey-based vinaigrette.

You don't really need a recipe, just mix and match your raw ingredients.






Have fun and play around with the salad until you're happy with your  eye-popping mound of fresh fruit and veg.