Smoky/Salty/Sweet Salad

A great salad when you want something crispy, salty and sweet in with your leaves but don't want a tonne of heavy stuff. Keeping it light and healthy, I spiced up some gorgeous greens with a little crisp fried prosciutto and grilled red onions, (the amazing)smoked salt and a dusting of coriander leaves. You could add some green peas or beans to make it really spring-y but I didn't have any to hand!

The salad makes a great compliment to the Mushroom sandwich a la Giet. :)



If you eat meat, you can't argue with it.

If you don't, I suggest using shavings of salty pecorino to compliment the sweet red onions.

Ingredients:
Red and green salad leaves (e.g. romaine, gem, lollo rosso, oakleaf)
Watercress
Coriander (Cilantro) leaves
One medium red onion
100 to 150g thinly sliced prosciutto (don't use really great prosciutto...it'd be a waste. Storebrand packets are ideal)
Olive oil
Danish Smoked Salt (available in Whole Foods and other similar shops)
Black Pepper
Lemon juice

Method
Turn the grill on and slice the onion thinly while it's heating up. Put the onion on some foil, sprinkle with smoked salt and drizzle with olive oil, then place in the oven to grill. The idea here is to end up with sweet soft onions with crispy bits, so just check on them every 5 minutes or so.

Put your washed leaves in a large bowl and set aside.

Put 1 tbsp of olive oil into a frying pan and heat. Roughly tear the prosciutto and put into the pan to fry. Fry on medium to high heat until the prosciutto is just browning and crisping up. The pan may smoke so put the oven fan on or open a window.

Remove from the heat when ready.

Roughly chop the coriander. Once the onions are ready put these, still warm, over the salad leaves, then adding the prosciutto and the pan juices. Sprinkle over the coriander leaves, and add a squeeze of lemon and twist of black pepper. No need to add any more oil!

Photo credit: Liam C Giet

Quick Spring Beetroot Salad

A great salad for these spring days in London: a little sweet, a little salty, fragrant and just plain tasty.

Ingredients:

3 small boiled beetroot, peeled
(you can buy these in lovely vacuum packs with nothing added in for about 70p from Waitrose and other supermarkets)

Juice of 1/2 lemon
2 or 3 sprigs of mint, roughly chopped
2 spring onions
drizzle of Olive oil
pinch of Fleur de Sel

Simply chop the beetroot into bite sized pieces, slice the spring onions diagonally into strips and combine in a bowl with the mint. Squeeze the lemon over the top, add a drizzle of olive oil and a pinch of fleur de sel or Maldon Salt.

(photo credit: Liam Giet)