I love to cook Mediterranean veg over coals and combine this with grilled, boned chicken legs in olive oil, garlic and thyme. When served with a potato salad and sauce vierge (tomatoes, shallots and basil), it provides a delicious outdoor feast for four people.

MEDITERRANEAN VEGETABLES

1 big aubergine
1 red pepper, skinned and deseeded
2 courgettes
1 head of fennel
2 red onions
8 spears of asparagus, blanched and refreshed

Before you light the barbecue, slice the aubergine and courgettes into even 1cm pieces, and the fennel and red onion into 0.5cm slices. Try keeping the onions in complete round slices. Score the aubergine and courgettes with a sharp knife crisscross fashion and liberally salt all these sliced vegetables. Leave in a colander for at least an hour for excess water to drain out of them.

When the coals are at the right temperature, pat the salted veg dry with a paper towel and cook until slightly blackened on both sides, without adding oil. You do need to add a little oil to the asparagus and skinned pepper. Then season them and cook on the barbecue.

Combine all the grilled vegetables and, when they have cooled slightly, dress with olive oil and freshly ground pepper. This vegetable salad is best served at room temperature so can be made beforehand.

POTATO SALAD

16 cooked Jersey Royals or small new waxy potatoes
1dsp mayonnaise, preferably homemade
1dsp crème fraîche
A bunch of finely chopped spring onions or chives
A few anchovies (optional)

Combine all the ingredients for the potato salad. Don’t use too much mayo just enough to bind the potatoes.

BONED CHICKEN LEGS WITH LEMON AND THYME

16 boned drumsticks or 8-12 thighs from free-range birds (or 4 chicken breasts)
A big bunch of thyme, leaves picked off
2 cloves of garlic, finely chopped or minced
Zest of a big lemon, removed and finely chopped
Good-quality olive oil

If you haven’t bought ready boned chicken pieces it’s very easy to do it yourself. Chop off the foot knuckle with a heavy knife and then run a smaller sharp knife along and around the short bone to remove it from the flesh. The thighs are even easier. Keep the skin attached to the chicken and mix all the drumsticks or thighs together with the minced garlic, thyme leaves, chopped lemon zest, olive oil and plenty of seasoning. Grill them on the barbecue until nicely charred – this should take only about five minutes each side. It is very important to get a nice browned/charred drumstick with crisp skin.

SAUCE VIERGE

12 ripe plum tomatoes, blanched and skinned
4 shallots, peeled
3 cloves of garlic
1 big bunch of basil (at least 20 leaves)
Best-quality olive oil, not too peppery
Seasoning

For the sauce vierge, separate the tomato flesh from the pulp and cut the flesh into even 0.5cm dice, this is called concassé. Finely chop the shallots and add to the tomato concassé. Season this mixture in a big bowl and leave for at least an hour to allow the tomato and shallot juices to run. Then add the finely-chopped garlic, the torn basil leaves and plenty of olive oil – enough oil to make the sauce quite runny. Check the seasoning and reserve this sauce at room temperature.

TO SERVE

Arrange the chicken with the vegetables on a big platter and serve the potato salad in a big bowl with the sauce vierge on the side.

Nutritionist’s verdict from Amanda Ursell: Tuck in . . . to protect your skin

If you dig in to these dishes you’ll get a good cross-section of supernutrients from the various vegetables, along with all the protein you need for the day and more than 50 per cent of your daily fibre. This meal is packed with vitamin C from the potatoes and peppers, which is important for helping our skin to protect itself from the sun. It is rich too in lycopene, the red pigment in tomatoes and in rutin in the asparagus which works with vitamin C to strengthen walls of small blood vessels under our skin.

Steer clear . . . if you’re having a lazy day

If you want to trim the calories from 743 to 623, and the fat from 36g to 23g per serving, then remove the skin from the drumsticks and use reduced-fat crème fraiche in the potato salad.

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