“…..no other vegetable tastes quite so much like the green shoots of hope.”
Bee Wilson, in The Financial Times
So this is a soft, floaty sort of light, summer salad, saved from blandness by; the nuts which give it crunch; the dried fruit which gives a bit of sweetness; the spring onions which give some zing; and the herbs which give a bit of flavour.
It goes well with roast chicken, with lamb, and with salmon, together with a Right Royal Cabbage in a creamy garlic and bacon sauce.
Recipe for soft green salad with dried cranberries, pistachios and spring onions
Serves 6
Ingredients
- 60g/2 oz bag soft salad leaves – lambs lettuce for example. Or 140g/5 oz bag of butterhead salad leaves – if you find this, you can omit the spinach.
- 60g/2 oz bag baby spinach
- a handful of coriander or parsley
- about six spring onions
- 40g/¼ cup dried cranberries, or raisins, or dried sour cherries…or dried goji berries
- 2 tbsp chopped pistachios
Ingredients for dressing
- 1 fat clove of garlic, crushed with 1 tsp smoked salt
- ½ teasp cumin seeds (dry fried and crushed in a pestle and mortar)
- 2 tbsp balsamic vinegar
- juice and zest of half a lime
- 4 tbsp olive oil
- freshly ground black pepper
Method
- Mix up the dressing.
- Empty the leaves into a large salad bowl.
- Snip over the herbs and the spring onions.
- Sprinkle over the berries and nuts.
- Dress, toss, and serve!
