Nigella Lawson's 'favourite' spring salad has 'tangy' twist and it is everyone's favourite
Infusing Asian flavours with English cooking techniques, this salad is one of her seasonal favourites.
This Anglo-Asian lamb salad recipe is one of Nigella Lawson's favourite spring time suppers.
Created out of necessity with random ingredients in her cupboard, Lawson decided to infuse the "tangy fire" flavours of Thai cooking with traditional English lamb with redcurrant and mint. Now, it has become a dish she absolutely relishes.
"Consider it an ovine reworking of those hot and sour beef salads of south east Asia," she explains. "Redcurrant jelly stands in for the sweetness of jaggery or palm sugar and I use rice vinegar (always to hand in my store cupboard) instead of lime juice."
Other spring recipes you can make include honey chicken, pasta primavera, spring stew and seasonal stir fry.
READ MORE: Nigella Lawson's lemon chicken with yogurt sauce is a 'stand by' spring recipe
Ingredients
For the salad
- 2 teaspoons garlic infused olive oil
- 1 lamb loin (approx. 250g / 8oz)
- approx. 180 grams mixed salad leaves (approx. 180g)
- 3 tablespoons chopped mint
For the dressing
- 2 tablespoons thai fish sauce (nam pla)
- 1 tablespoon redcurrant jelly
- 2 tablespoons rice wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon soy sauce
- 1 red chilli (deseeded and finely chopped (or ¼ teaspoon crushed chillies))
- 1 spring onion (finely sliced)
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Instructions
- Heat the oil in a heavy-based pan, and cook the lamb for 5 minutes on one side, and then turn it over and cook for another 2 ½ minutes on the other.
- Wrap the meat in foil, making a baggy but tightly sealed parcel, and let it rest for about 5 minutes.
- In a medium-sized bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients.
- Open the foil parcel, and empty the meat juices into the dressing. Cut the lamb into very fine slices or strips and add them too; the acid in the dressing will cook the lamb a little more while it steeps. If the meat is not rare, I'd leave it for just a short time, but for a longer time if it seems undercooked. You want it still gorgeously pink to sit on its salad.
- Divide the salad leaves between 2 (or 4) plates and then arrange the soused lamb with the dressing over each one. Finally scatter the chopped mint on top.
This recipe was originally published on Nigella Lawson's website.