Light and Fresh Spinach Salad
Light and Fresh Spinach Salad
This tangy salad makes a great offset for fish and meat dishes. It is a welcome change from lettuce salads and is rich in iron and other nutrients. If you want to make a meal out of it, just add some fresh bread and make a larger quantity of salad, or combine it with Lizabetti's hearty chicken soup or mushroom beef barley soup for a healthy and satisfying meal.
Ingredients
Salad
- 3 cups of fresh spinach or baby spinach
- 1/4 cup of crumbled gorganzola cheese
- 1 tbsp of toasted pine nuts
- 1-2 pieces of crispy cooked bacon, crumbled
- salt and pepper to taste
- 3 thinly slices of red onion
- 6 cherry tomatoes (optional)
Dressing
- the juice of one lime or lemon (will probably measure to less than a 1/4 cup)
- 1 tsp of dijon mustard
- 1/4 c of first press olive oil
- salt and pepper
INSTRUCTIONS
Dressing
- In a small mixing bowl, squeeze all the juice out of the lime.
- Add the mustard and wisk it into the lime juice.
- Slowly drizzle the olive oil whiling wisking it into the lime juice
- Salt and pepper to taste.
Salad
- Trim spinach if necessary.
- Soak and wash spinach, making sure that all the dirt has been thoroughly removed. The best method is to soak the spinach in cold water for a few minutes. Repeat this at least twice.
- Spin the spinach dry. Plate the spinach in individual plates or in a large salad bowl.
- If the pine nuts are raw, roast them in a toaster oven at 350F until golden brown . You know they are ready when you can smell the fragrance of the pine nuts or about 5 minutes. No toaster oven, use a small fry pan on medium/high and brown the pine nuts. It should take just a few minutes and you need to keep the pine nuts moving constantly or they will burn and taste awful.
- Add pine nuts to the salad.
- Add the bacon and cheese.
- Salt and pepper.
- Just prior to serving, drizzle the dressing over the entire salad and toss. Will serve 2-3 people.
- Serve before or after the main course.
Variations to the salad
The spinach salad as described above is tasty and a healthy change to your typical salad. You can also change it up and add other ingredients. A tasty addition is grilled portabello mushroom. To prepare the portabello, clean it of any visible dirt and trim the stem down. Drizzle it with olive oil. Slather it with about 1 tbsp of minced garlic. Salt and pepper it to taste. Set it aside to marinade for about 30 minutes. Grill it at medium heat or 375F for about 5 minutes on each side. Slice it into about 6 pieces and added to your salad.
You can also thinly sliced cremini mushrooms. You don't need many, about 2 mushroom per person.
This salad is also great prepared with the mesclyn mix greens.
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