Vegetable Top Salad with Walnut Dressing
- Level: Easy
- Yield: 2
-
- Nutritional Analysis
- Per Serving
- Serving Size
- 1 of 2 servings
- Calories
- 847
- Total Fat
- 71
- Saturated Fat
- 10
- Carbohydrates
- 37
- Dietary Fiber
- 10
- Sugar
- 11
- Protein
- 19
- Cholesterol
- 17
- Sodium
- 688
- Total: 15 min
- Active: 15 min
Ingredients
1 cup walnut halves
2 teaspoons Cognac
1/4 teaspoon red pepper flakes
1/4 cup red wine vinegar
Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper
4 tablespoons extra-virgin olive oil
1 cup arugula
3 cups vegetable tops, trimmed of stems, coarsely chopped
1 tablespoon honey
1/4 cup finely grated Pecorino cheese
Directions
- Make the dressing: Place the walnuts inside a ziptop bag. Use a rolling pin to lightly crush the walnuts into smaller pieces inside the bag. In a large bowl, whisk the walnuts, Cognac, pepper flakes and red wine vinegar with a generous pinch salt. Slowly whisk in the olive oil. Taste for seasoning.
- Make the salad: Pour the dressing over the greens and toss to coat. Drizzle honey in the bottom of a serving bowl. Add the greens. Sprinkle cheese over the top. Serve immediately.
Cook’s Note
I love the "nose to tail" vegetable concept behind this salad. You just have to be careful: the flavor of vegetable tops varies from batch to batch. One bunch of carrot tops can have grassy, lovely, sour flavors. One bunch of beets can have super sweet tops. Then, all that can change. You have to taste the tops and make sure they are on point. When you shop for this salad you want to know about the tops more than the vegetables they are attached to! You are also, hopefully, going to use tops that are hanging around in your fridge. If you have some "droopy" tops, refresh them by soaking in cold water for 20-30 minutes. Then, dry them and cut into the salad. You also need a neutral green, like peppery arugula, mixed in that acts as a home base for all the flavors. The walnuts are best when crushed from whole pieces and untoasted here. They add to the richness of the dressing and round out the bitter edges from the vegetable tops.