I made a really nice salad this evening, and I want to write it down before I forget what I did. It turned out to be a really nice mix of sweet and sour, with good contrast of textures from the wilted spinach, chicken, and crunchy cornichons.
For the salad:
- 200 grams or so of fresh spinach (a small bag, or half a large bag)
- 1 teaspon of minced garlic
- A slug of good olive oil
- 1 cup of leftover cooked chicken breast, cut into bite sized pieces
- A few good, sour cornichons
For the dressing:
- 1 teaspon of grainy dijon mustard
- 1 teaspon orange marmalade
- salt & pepper
- 1 teaspon dried Italian herbs
- Red chili flakes to taste
- Good olive oil
- Red wine vinegar
First, make the dressing. Mix everything but the olive oil and vinegar in a small bowl and whisk together to mix well. Drizzle in a couple of teaspoons of olive oil and whisk well. Add a bit more (totalling maybe a couple of tablespoons), whisking, until you get a thick paste – the olive oil will be well emulsified by the mustard, so your dressing won’t separate. Add a couple of teaspoons of vinegar and whisk well. Taste, and add more vinegar until you get a good balance of sweet and sour in your dressing.
To assemble the salad, heat a drizzle of olive oil in a large skillet (large enough to hold all of the spinach together), then add the garlic. Let the garlic sizzle for a few seconds, then dump in all of the spinach. Mix the spinach once with the tongs or a large spoon, then add in the chicken and the cornichons. Mix again to try to get the spinach evenly wilted – you don’t want to cook it, just wilt it a little. Your total cooking time should be no more than a minute or two. Turn off the heat and pour the dressing over the spinach and chicken. Turn it over a few more times in the pan, then serve in bowls. This amount will serve one as a main, or 2-3 as a side.
