Easter Salad

Ingredients:

1 jar of quail eggs in brine

1 pack of baby asparagus spears

1 bulb of beetroot, cooked and pickled, sliced thinly into rounds

50 g semi soft type goat's cheese, crumbled

 Bunch of fresh salad leaves, baby spinach or similar

Bunch of fresh water cress

Bunch of fresh dandelion salad leaves

Bunch of edible flowers

Dressing:

4 tbsp mayonnaise

Juice from 1/2 a small grapefruit

1 teaspoon agave syrup

1/2 teaspoon vinegar

salt&pepper

*

They were planning to cook a dinner for their friends and they agreed to make it in "Spring/Easter" theme. It was her role to come up with a starter and she immediately envisioned fresh flowery salad as you can see on the picture above. One visit to an Arab market and she had all the ingredients she needed for a try-out which ended up with a great success. This salad has a bit more pricey ingredients but is certainly worth the try if you want to make a good impression.

She cooked and pickled her own beetroot by cooking the cleaned bulb with cut-off ends for about 45 mins on mild heat with about an half a teaspoon salt and about a tablespoon vinegar. Once boiled soft, the beetroot needs to be cut into super thin round slices. At the same time, the baby asparagus with cut-off ends is roasted on a pan with a drop of olive oil, salt and pepper al dente. The dressing can be also prepared at this time by simply stirring the mayonnaise, salt, pepper, vinegar, agave syrup and grapefruit juice until compact mixture is created. The sauce shouldn't be too liquid. 

She opted for placing the ingredients on the plate in form of little nests. The bottom is created by the thinly slices pickled beetroot on which various salad leaves and the water cress are placed. On top of each nest come two roasted asparagus spears and side wise quail egg cut in half. The salad is then topped by a bit of crumbled goat's cheese and decorated by edible flower. All the nests are finally sprayed by the dressing. Serve the salad with some fresh brown bread or baguette and crisp white wine.

Bon Appetit!