Spinach Salad with Blueberry Vinaigrette

There’s only so many desserts your body can take. After the panacotta and the tart I was looking for something healthy that would rev my body back from slugishness. Scanning the food channel late at night I was watching one of those cooking shows where the father, whose a chef, proceeds to cook a 14 course dinner for his whole family in half an hour. Hmmm…never mind that we never saw any of his assistants during that segment. One of the things he made was a vinaigrette for his salad using blueberries. “Interesting” I thought. I had a whole batch of blueberries lying in the fridge waiting for a porridge or a batter for muffins. So I decided to experiment using his technique of mixing the blueberries with some olive oil and vinegar.

Apart from a stained kitchen bench top (those blueberries are like paint when they’re blended) it turned out beautifully. I found some baby spinach leaves that were nearing their hibernation cycle in the refrigerator and I used them as my base salad ingredients. I didn’t want to bulk the salad too much. Just a light simple dish full of goodness and antioxidants. The dressing was slightly tart but very tangy as well. Give this spinach salad a try for something different..

SPINACH SALAD WITH BLUEBERRY VINAIGRETTE RECIPE

• Blueberries-Depending on how thick or thin you want your dressing. More blueberries yields a chunkier dressing. I used about half a small container which equates to about 100 grams.
• Olive oil or grapeseed oil-the recipe I saw used a neutral flavoured oil, which makes sense as you don’t want the strong flavours of the extra virgin olive oil dominating. But I only had olive oil and it worked out fine.
• Vinegar-preferably red wine. Oops! I had run out and substituted balsamic. That’s fine as well. We’re having fun in the kitchen…not signing peace treaties!

*When making vinaigrettes I always follow the 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar rule. So for e.g. for this small spinach salad I used half cup of oil to a few “splashes” of balsamic*

You might also like:

Tagged as: Recipes, salad, summer