Raid the Fridge Fridays: Jewelled winter salad

A winter salad reads like an oxymoron, doesn’t it? Why on earth would we want to eat unheated vegetables when the weather outside is close to freezing?

I’ll tell you why.

A few years ago I had a little rant about Lockdown and how it was forcing me to eat baguette. Lockdown ended at the beginning of this year (and please please please don’t come back) yet my baguette consumption did not. So, my scapegoat had wriggled through my clutches.

Now we’re fast approaching that famously greedy time of year. I would normally be instructing us all to pile the pâté higher on our pieces of toast, but I’ve been greedy all year and, quite frankly, I miss anti-oxidants. There is only so much cheese and baguette and saucisson and pain au chocolat and tartiflette I can consume and moan about guiltily on my blog until I actually do something about it.

French cooking: Pain au chocolat

Furthermore, we all know what will happen to our diets this Christmas. There will be cheese boards, molten baked camemberts, sausages wrapped in bacon, and a chocolate box or two temptingly left open. You reach a point where resistance is futile. Therefore, this salad is to lighten the load, to make us feel a bit more virtuous before the inevitable feasting begins - then we’ll actually deserve it, you know?

So, a salad it is but don’t be disheartened - this one has the vitality rarely found in a pile of iceberg lettuce leaves.

There’s crunch and chew and its rather loud flavours all jostle around craving their turn in the spotlight - a wishy-washy summer salad this is not.

More like a slaw, this jewelled winter salad is full of fresh raw vegetables - inky purple cabbage, fennel, beetroot staining everything pale pink, and carrot - which are sliced into pencil-sized sticks, and tossed in a salty spicy dressing of lemon, garlic, mustard and anchovies. Add basil and mint and fennel fronds, then some poppy and sesame seeds and pomegranate, and you have a sparkling winter showstopper.

Slaws are the perfect accompaniment to sausage rolls or tucked inside tacos (watch this space… taco recipe incoming!). I ate this slaw (not all of it mind you, the picture shows enough to feed 20) alongside a fillet of oregano-speckled salmon and I felt my virtuousness return - just in time for Christmas.

Jewelled winter salad

Prep Time: 20 mins

Course: Salad, Side Dish, Snack, Lunch, Dinner, Main Course

Keyword: salad, cabbage, beetroot, fennel, pomegranate

Servings: 2-4 as a side

Author: Adapted from Jamie Oliver’s recipe

Ingredients

• ¼ red cabbage

• ½ fennel

• 1 cooked beetroot

• ½ carrot

• ¼ pomegranate

• Zest of ½ lemon

• 3 anchovies in oil, roughly chopped

• 1 clove of garlic, crushed

• 2 tsp cider vinegar

• 4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil

• 1 tsp Dijon mustard

• A couple of sprigs of mint and basil

• 1 tbsp poppy seeds

• 1 tbsp sesame seeds

• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Instructions

• Finely slice the cabbage, fennel and beetroot into bite-sized strips and scoop into a large salad bowl. Peel and grate the carrot and add to the bowl.

• Crack apart the pomegranate quarter and sprinkle out the seeds into the salad. Some seeds might need more encouragement.

• In a small bowl or jug, combine the lemon zest, anchovies and garlic - mash them together a bit, or use a pestle and mortar.

• Add the vinegar, extra virgin olive oil and mustard and whisk to combine. Add a little salt to taste.

• Shred the mint and basil leaves off the sprigs and roughly chop or tear them into pieces. Add them to the salad with the poppy and sesame seeds.

• Give everything a stir, or use your (clean) hands to get in there and mix everything together.

• Pour over the dressing then toss it all together. Serve with a sprinkling of extra seeds or some fronds from the fennel.