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

1. In a small mixing bowl, squeeze all the juice out of the lime.
2. Add the mustard and wisk it into the lime juice.
3. Slowly drizzle the olive oil whiling wisking it into the lime juice
4. Salt and pepper to taste.

   

Salad

1. Trim spinach if necessary.
2. 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.
3. Spin the spinach dry. Plate the spinach in individual plates or in a large salad bowl.
4. 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.
5. Add pine nuts to the salad.
6. Add the bacon and cheese.
7. Salt and pepper.
8. Just prior to serving, drizzle the dressing over the entire salad and toss. Will serve 2-3 people.
9. 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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