Weekend Recipe: Gizzi Erskine’s Superfood Salad

This salad has everything you could possibly want for health: oily fish for brain development and building a good heart, and a variety of green vegetables for balancing alkalinity in the blood. Kale is a winner in salads but you need to give it a really quick blanch first or it’s like eating tickly autumn leaves. The avocado is full of vitamin E and good oils that will help you burn fat, and it’s the same deal with the seeds. There’s quinoa for carbs and more protein and we’re toasting it to give it a more nutty flavour. The Japanese dressing with shallots and ginger will cleanse your blood and give it some spunk.

SERVES 4
PREPARATION TIME 20 minutes
COOKING TIME 15 minutes

100g quinoa
320ml water
100g kale, blanched for 30 seconds and refreshed in iced water
100g fresh or frozen edamame beans
½ head of broccoli, cut into small florets
1 avocado, peeled, stoned and chopped
2 spring onions, thinly sliced
10 radishes, thinly sliced
300g perfectly cooked or hot-smoked salmon, skin removed and flesh flaked
1 tablespoon toasted black and/or white sesame seeds

For the Japanese salad dressing
1 banana shallot, very finely chopped
3cm piece of fresh root ginger, peeled and grated
6 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
6 tablespoons soy sauce
6 tablespoons sesame oil
sea salt flakes and freshly ground black pepper

Pop the quinoa in a dry frying pan and toast over a medium heat, keeping the quinoa moving the whole time, until it’s lightly golden and nutty. Transfer to a small saucepan and add a good pinch of salt and the water. Cover, bring to the boil and cook for 10 minutes. Remove from the heat and, keeping the lid on, let the quinoa steam for 5 minutes to soak up the remaining liquid and get fluffy.

To make the dressing, place all the ingredients in a clean jam jar and season with salt and pepper. Screw the lid on tightly and shake it like crazy.

Drain the kale and dry it on kitchen paper, then roughly chop. Place the kale in a large salad bowl along with the edamame beans, broccoli, avocado, spring onions, radishes and quinoa. Dress with two-thirds of the salad dressing, give a swift mix so as not to let the avocado break up too much, then plate up between 4 plates. Top with the salmon and the remaining dressing and finish with a scattering of the sesame seeds.

Recipe taken from Gizzi’s Healthy Appetite by Gizzi Erskine, available here