Recipes

Seamus Mullen's kale salad with apple, toasted pecans and yoghurt and dill vinaigrette

Posted by Fiona Beckett (Google+) on January 10 2017 at 06:37

I've never really 'got' kale but this delicious salad would convert anybody. AND it's healthy too!

I've added some notes about how they've adapted the recipe at Mullen's restaurant Sea Containers. Given that fresh herbs are scarce and expensive at this time of year you might also want to cut back on the number you use (apart from the dill).

Kale salad, apple, toasted pecans and yogurt and dill vinaigrette

Serves 4

1 bunch Cavalo Nero, Dinosaur kale or Tuscan kale

A handful of dandelion leaves if available

1 oz spiced, caramelized pecans*

1 apple, thinly sliced (they used Golden Delicious, apparently)

1 small serrano chile, sliced as thinly as possible

1/2 an avocado, cut into 1/2” pieces

2 oz yogurt and dill vinaigrette (see below)

a good handful of fresh herbs - Mullen recommends cilantro (coriander), basil, dill and mint. Gus, his sous chef, used chives, parsley and chervil

For the yogurt and dill vinaigrette:

1/2 cup (4 fl oz) full fat yogurt or kefir

1 clove garlic, grated

6 tbsp fresh dill

zest and juice 1 lemon

1 tbsp champagne or moscatel vinegar

1 tsp honey

1 cup (8 fl oz) extra virgin olive oil

salt

fresh ground pepper

Combine all ingredients except oil, whisk together, then drizzle in oil until emulsified.

Process

Strip the leaves off the stalks and cut the kale into a paper thin chiffonade. Combine all the ingredients, season with salt and pepper and plate in a small bowl (see above. (I suspect you need to let it rest for half an hour or so to soften as you do a slaw.) Garnish with fresh herbs and fresh cracked pepper.

* in the recipe Mullen says "toasted in brown butter, tossed in sugar, cayenne, ground coriander and sea salt" but his chef Gus says he dips the nuts in whisked egg white, rolls them in a mixture of onion and garlic powder, cayenne, curry powder, salt and turmeric then roasts them briefly at 165°C. Or use any spiced nuts recipe you like. Or buy them ready made.

What to drink: I found an Austrian grüner veltliner paired very well with this but so would an apple juice. (See my pairings for kale).

Obviously the picture at the top of the page looks more stylish but yours - and mine - will look more like the dressed salad in the bowl.

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