Crunchy Winter Salads

The wind is howling outside and it is more the weather for a wholesome stew, than for a salad. Yet it is especially important in the winter to eat fresh fruit and vegetables in order to get our supply of vitamins and minerals.
 It is far more healthy for your body and soul to make a colourful salad out of what the winter has to offer us, than to swallow a few vitamin tablets.
The first salad uses red cabbage, apples, nuts and raisins. The second salad is based on cooked beet root and has a few more ingredients, which you can change to your own taste.
You might ask, why two red salads? I think nature is wonderful in supplying us with very colourful winter vegetables to cheer us up. Besides the red, look at the dark green of the Kale or of the wonderful marble colouring of the Brussels Sprouts, both make an excellent addition to  any winter salad. Just blanch them for a minute and cool down immediately in ice water before using.

Red Cabbage Salad

Ingredients 

1/2 head or a small head of red cabbage shredded

2 ripe apples, a winter variety, like cox orange, diced

50 to 75 g roasted walnuts or hazel nuts, chopped

50 g raisins or sultanas soaked in cider or white wine over night* ( if you haven't any cider, you can use apple juice or any fruit juice

A vinegar dressing made with a good Balsamic Vinegar ( see salads)

* freeze in leftover wine or cider in a ice cube freezer bag and you have at hand small quantities when you may need .

Method

Simply mix all the ingredients

together.

Serve salad on its own with cold meats and cheeses,

or as a side salad with fried/grilled pork chops, Roast Pork, actually with most Pork dishes







Beet Root Salad

Ingredients

2 to 3 cooked Beet Root, cubed
1 juicy apple, cut
25-50 g cashew nuts ( depending how crunchy you want the salad to be)
2 pickled cucumbers ( optional)
2 hard boiled eggs*
1 small gourgette, cut into small strips ( optional)

1 fresh Fennel roasted with a little oil and salt and pepper ( the fennel takes about 15 min. depending on your oven at 175C)

1 cream vinegar and oil dressing ( basically the normal vinaigrette with about 3 Tbsp fresh cream)

Leave the fennel cool down before chopping and adding to the rest of the salad

*Boiling eggs, a simple thing to do you might say,
but......
to achieve the nicely boiled egg as on the picture
you simply bring the eggs to the boil and then you turn of the cooker. Leave the eggs in the hot water
for approx. 20 minutes, cool down and chop


Method

As you see from the pictures, it is very easy to prepare the salad.
Chop all the ingredients, add the dressing and adjust the seasoning.
Depending on the size of the Beet Root you might want to add a little more salt.
If you don't use pickled cucumbers, you might want to add a little more vinegar.

This salad is a well balanced meal and does not need any extras, but any nice crunchy fresh bread would go very well indeed with it.

Note

Both salads can be prepared well in advance, as a matter of fact, they benefit from a few hours resting.