The Recipe Room

This spinach and warm veggie salad recipe, smothered in a delicious creamy mustard sauce, makes a great starter or side dish for any occasion.  The warm vegetables make a welcome change to a typical cold salad and provide the perfect contrast to the bed of tender fresh spinach leaves.

If you have more of an appetite, you could also try this pita bread with fried vegetables, coriander and ricotta cheese. The extra carbs will give you an energy boost.

 

What you’re going to need:

• 2 medium-sized red onions
• 100g cherry tomatoes
• 1 fennel bulb
• 110g fresh tender spinach  leaves
• 1/2 lemon
• 1 bunch fresh parsley
• 1 slice whole-grain bread
• 65ml vegetable stock
• 2tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 2tsp grainy mustard
• 2tbsp crème fraîche
• Salt and pepper to taste
• Pinch of ground coriander

What you have to do:

 

1. Chop the red onions.
2. Trim the fennel, wash and cut into eighths lengthwise.
3. Wash and trim the spinach. Remove the thick stems, and wash thoroughly in cold standing water. Allow to drain thoroughly and transfer to plates.
4. Wash the lemon with hot water, remove a thin layer of zest, and chop finely. Squeeze out the juice and set aside.
5. Wash the parsley and finely chop the leaves.
6. Sprinkle the lemon zest and parsley leaves over top of the spinach.
7. Soak the bread in the vegetable stock.
8.  In a blender, finely purée the bread with the extra virgin olive oil.
9. Mix in the grainy mustard and crème fraîche and season to taste with 1.5 tablespoons of the lemon juice, along with the salt, pepper, and coriander.
10. In a wide pot, bring about 5cm of salted water to the boil for the vegetables.
11. Cover and cook the vegetables 5 minutes, or until they are tender and crisp.
12. Drain the excess water from the vegetables and arrange them on top of the spinach leaves.
13. Pour the mustard cream over the salad or mix it all together so that the entire dish is coated with the dressing.
14. Serve immediately.

 

Preparation Time:  20

Cooking Time: 10 minutes

Serves:  4

Difficulty: Easy

Tags: cherry tomatoes, creme fraiche, fennel, ground coriander, lemon, mustard, olive oil, parsley, red onions, spinach, Spinach and Warm Veggie Salad, vegetable stock, vegetarian, whole-grain bread

This entry was posted on Monday, 23 July, 2012 at 11:32 am by Serena Langley and is filed under Less than 30 minutes, Meal for 4 people, Side dishes, Starters. You can follow any responses to this entry through the feed RSS 2.0. You can leave a comment, or make a trackback from your own blog.