“So, if I’m cooking, I’ll be steaming vegetables, making some nice salad, that kind of stuff.”
Paul McCartney
The idea for this salad comes from a recipe contributed by Paul McCartney to a richly interesting collection published as A Taste of Home, in aid of The Passage, a charity supporting homeless people. McCartney comments that it is “a simple salad that I often enjoy”.
I’ve changed the quantities, and added toasted walnuts and walnut oil, instead of McCartney’s pinenuts, but otherwise the concept is broadly the same.
One, rather nice, variation is to fry the cherry tomatoes with a little salt, using the same pan in which you dry fry the walnuts.
Recipe for Paul McCartney’s really rather good simple salad
Serves – 4
Ingredients
- 140g/5 oz bag of washed mixed lettuce (McCartney uses baby spinach and/or Romaine)
- 2 avocados
- 12 cherry tomatoes
- 200g/7 oz feta
- Handful of walnuts
- 60 ml/4 tbsps olive oil
- 60 ml/4 tbsps walnut oil
- 2 tbsps thick, dark balsamic vinegar
- Salt and pepper
Instructions
- Empty the lettuce into the salad bowl.
- Peel and slice the avocadoes, add those.
- Cut the tomatoes in half, add them.
- Crumble in the feta.
- Toast the walnuts, briefly, and chop them roughly.
- Make the dressing by mixing together the oils, the vinegar, and adding some salt and pepper.
- Add to the salad, and toss. Serve, garnished with the walnuts.
