green salad w/ maple mustard
This recipe is really to highlight the super simple and delicious dressing-you can really use whatever greens and garnishes you like. I was super excited to make this because it’s the FIRST SPRING SALAD. It’s only April here in zone 6b, so most of the produce was actually started in the fall and winter!
The spinach was planted in the fall and overwintered in a low tunnel, the kale was planted in the garden in the fall- then uprooted and brought indoors in a giant pot and grew through the winter. The nasturtiums I planted in January and they are POPPING. I usually bring them outdoors during the day to enjoy their beauty- but today I decided use the leaves and flowers in my salad.
This combination of greens, nasturtium & pickled carrots gives the salad a great balance of spicy, tangy, crunchy & sweet.
INGREDIENTS
Maple Mustard Dressing
1 Tbsp maple syrup
1 tsp dry mustard (or your favorite type of prepared mustard, like dijon)
1 tsp apple cider vinegar ***
Salad Components
1 cup spinach leaves
1 cup lacinato kale
1/4 cup pickled carrots***
a few small nasturtium leaves & flowers
***I used my latest batch of fire cider in place of vinegar in the dressing- it’s apple cider vinegar infused with garlic, onion, hot peppers, lemons, rosemary & peppercorns. It was a really nice addition! I also used it to pickle my carrots. I just followed the recipe for Quick Pickled Carrots but I cut back on the sugar and replaced the vinegar with fire cider! It added extra flavor and spice to the carrots without any extra work.
MAKE IT
Add your dressing ingredients to a jar with a lid- feel free to add some spices, salt/papper, or hot sauce if you like that kind of thing. Sometimes I add garlic powder.
Shake to combine- salad dressing DONE!
Wash and dry your greens and nasturtiums. If your spinach is a little more full grown you can chop it into bite sized pieces, along with your kale. Add your greens to a bowl and toss with 1/2 of the dressing. I like to incorporate with my hands to kind of massage the kale and make it soft.
Plate up your greens and top with nasturtium leaves. Arrange some pickled carrot slices on top and drizzle with the rest of your dressing.
Garnish with the nasturtium flowers. I like to do this after adding all the dressing so they stay nice and brightly colored.
That’s it! This dressing is great on all sorts of dishes and you can adjust it to make it sweeter or more tangy depending on what you like. The maple mustard dressing is especially good on a salad with strawberries or apple slices (sorry if you’re not into fruit on salads, but I dig it).