spinach salad with roasted swede, pear and feta

Try as I might, sometimes this whole “cooking for two” thing doesn’t pan out. Last night I was determined to make a meal out of what was already in the freezer, refrigerator and cupboards. But there weren’t many protein sources around, and I was not keen for another pasta dish.

But in the freezer, for VERY rainy days, sat steak and kidney pies, chips and peas. (These are normally here for nights when I’m away). Now, I’m not about to have that for dinner, but the thought popped into my mind that perhaps it would be easiest for me to cook that for my husband, leaving me time to experiment with something for myself. Hmmm….

Swede, lonely and dejected, sat in my vegetable drawer, crying out for someone to spice it up. I decided to roast them in the oven with the pies and chips and use them in a salad. Warm salads can be lovely – if done right.

The fun part with the swede was deciding which spices to roast them with. I decided on something sweet, warm and earthy – a few fennel seeds, a pinch or two of cinnamon and a bit of pepper. But what about the other ingredients?

I decided upon concorde pears (hands down the best pears I have tasted this year), chopping one up and reserving a bit of flesh for a puree in a vinaigrette. The pears I knew would match perfectly with the rusty cinnamon.

What about protein? Obviously I needed some, but what? Options: mozzarella, cheddar and feta. In a perfect world, I’d go for blue vinney or perhaps parmesan. I felt something strong was needed, so mozzarella does not work. Cheddar, perhaps, but “it doesn’t sound good in a recipe title,” my sage husband surmised. (Perhaps he pays more attention than I thought.) I settled on feta.

Ding! Chips and pies onto one plate, swede into a bowl with spinach leaves, feta and pears. (For the vinaigrette, spray a bit of olive oil into a bowl with lemon juice, pear puree, salt and pepper and whizz with a hand blender. It’s less about having a full-blown dressing and more about ensuring the salad isn’t too dry.)

This salad is pretty low-calorie: about 300, actually. I was trying to make amends for a rather lovely smoked salmon and brie Panini I ate earlier in the day. But I believe it would work lovely as a first course for dinner – or as a soup/salad combo for a light Saturday lunch.