Big broccoli and spinach salad with carrot-ginger dressing
Serves 2
A favourite lunchbox salad of mine, and happily this makes extra dressing, so drizzle over roast veg and noodles. It’s inspired by a Japanese dressing, the white miso paste giving it a beautifully salty-sweet umami flavour. Swap the cooked chickpeas for lentils or other beans, if you like.
● Large handful of bite-sized broccoli florets, stems sliced thinly
● 100g baby spinach
● 400g tin of chickpeas, drained, rinsed and dried
● 1 handful of cherry tomatoes (I like a mix of colours), halved
● About 150g cooked quinoa or brown rice (about 80g uncooked – see tip)
● 1 handful of seeds (such as pumpkin or sunflower), toasted, to serve
For the dressing (makes extra):
● 2 medium carrots, scrubbed (about 200g)
● 2 tbsp chopped fresh ginger
● 3½ tbsp extra-virgin olive oil
● 1 tbsp toasted sesame oil
● ½ small white onion or 3 spring onions
● 3 tbsp rice vinegar or apple cider vinegar
● 2½ tbsp white miso paste
● Sea salt
TIP: To prepare the quinoa from scratch, cook it following the packet instructions and, in the last 4 minutes, add the broccoli florets to sit on top. Remove from the heat and leave the lid on for 3 minutes.
1 Steam the broccoli for 4–5 minutes in a small pan until just tender. You can do this by putting a small amount of water with a little pinch of salt in a pan so that it covers the bottom by about 1cm, and cooking the broccoli in it with a lid on the pan.
2 Place all the ingredients for the dressing – except the salt – in a blender or a food processor and combine until smooth, then season with salt to taste. If your blender isn’t high-powered, roughly grate the carrots and ginger first before adding. Add about 4 tablespoons of water to the dressing to make it drizzly; it is a thick dressing, but add more water to thin it out further if you fancy.
3 Toss all the salad ingredients together, drizzle over about half of the dressing and scatter over the seeds. Serve any extra dressing on the side and keep the rest in a clean screw-top jar in the fridge.