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Blue cheese, leafy greens, hazelnuts: nailing the summer salad (Photo: Emma Boyd)
Blue cheese, leafy greens, hazelnuts: nailing the summer salad (Photo: Emma Boyd)

KaiJanuary 12, 2019

Recipe: Hazelnut, blue cheese and silverbeet salad

Blue cheese, leafy greens, hazelnuts: nailing the summer salad (Photo: Emma Boyd)
Blue cheese, leafy greens, hazelnuts: nailing the summer salad (Photo: Emma Boyd)

Ditch the limp mesclun and supermarket dressing: this is a salad that doesn’t muck around. 

This salad is a riff on an Ottolenghi recipe and is a wonderful combination of sweet and sour, crunchy and creamy. And what’s more, it gives silverbeet a whole new lease on life as it’s finely shredded and used as the base of the salad (rather than being cooked to within an inch of its life!). A word of caution, however, silverbeet contains oxalic acid so choose young leaves for salads and eat raw only in moderation.  

HAZELNUT, BLUE CHEESE & SILVERBEET SALAD

  • ½ red onion, halved, thinly sliced
  • 12 dates, quartered lengthwise
  • 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar, plus extra to drizzle
  • 75g (⅔ cup) hazelnuts
  • 10 smaller silverbeet leaves, finely shredded
  • 85g blue cheese, crumbled
  • extra virgin olive oil to drizzle

Put the red onion and dates in a small bowl, pour over the red wine vinegar, stir and set aside.

In a heavy-bottomed frying pan over a medium-high heat, toast the hazelnuts until golden brown. To remove the skins, you can either turn the hazelnuts out into a tea towel, fold over and use to rub the nuts so the skins come loose. Otherwise, I sometimes leave the nuts in the frying pan, take it outside and give it a shake – if it’s a windy day, the skins will blow away (or you can blow on them!).  

Once cool, roughly chop the nuts and set aside.

Put the shredded silverbeet in a salad bowl, scatter the onion/date mixture over the top, followed by the blue cheese and then finally the hazelnuts. Drizzle with some extra red wine vinegar and a good slosh of olive oil.  Season with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper then serve.

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