A colourful winter salad suitable to serve with leftover Christmas turkey.
The coal fire is blazing and opening bars of Howard’s Way are playing when we’re called to fetch our Sunday evening supper from the room next door. The old wooden table is laid with a pale blue cloth bedecked with a platter of salad, stainless steel bowl of ready salted crisps (or occasionally corn snack onion rings), triangles of cold meat sandwiches and if you’re lucky a tomato quiche. Stood at the back like soldiers in a row, a line of pickle jars. Sparky onions, yellow piccalilli and the precarious beetroot. Precarious because I was always terrified of dropping a piece on my grandmother’s tablecloth by mistake.
You can’t beat a good pickle to serve with cold cuts at Christmas. They’re damp and sharp to perk up otherwise dry offerings of cold turkey sandwiches.
It was a standing joke in our house that salad was made from “wet lettuce”. Leaves of round lettuce were indeed soaked in my grandmother’s sink until osmosis must surely have plumped them up. The contents of my grandmother’s salads were rigidly fixed to the wet leaves of round lettuce, half moons of cucumber, quarters of tomato. Occasionally some quartered hard boiled egg was scattered on top. I was fascinated by the ever present stainless steel tongs – also known as “the grabs” to mechanically retrieve items individually onto my plate. They were mechanically sprung with a metal pivot, scooped clasps and a graceful curved handle.
Over thirty years later when my grandparents’ house was cleared I made a beeline for “the grabs”. I was sentimental about the tinny clacking noise they made as the two parts sprang back together. My young son now keeps them in his “gadget box” along with his ever growing hoard of alarm clocks, kitchen timers and USB keys. And every time he picks them up and starts snapping the handles intermittently, the sound transports me back to that supper table. Teatime on a Sunday evening. Teacups and mugs in a row on Welsh dresser filled with blue willow crockery. The heat from the coal fires. The last hour before my father took me home to my mother until Friday.
For almost all of my first twenty years I thought salad only comprised the trinity of lettuce, cucumber and (watery in winter) tomato. Not yet had I encountered the tuna Nicoise, the chicken Caesar nor been let loose to create my own. Even the salads at school were the same apart from the addition of cress.
Not so now. My salads often have ten different ingredients and rarely do I create the same salad twice. There’s always an ingredient tweaked here and there.
I was vaguely aware of the existence of red cabbage when growing up but probably red onion hadn’t made it into Safeway by the mid eighties and certainly soy beans had not. I first encountered soy beans served warm in salty pods at Wagamama and was delighted when supermarkets started stocking them in the freezer section.
This purple salad was inspired in part by seeing a Waitrose salad pot comprising soy beans alongside purple aduki beans. The colours contrasted beautifully so when Haywards asked me to create a recipe using their pickled beetroot I knew I wanted to play off the purpleness against the bright green soy beans. The textures are most satisfying too.
Winter beetroot salad with edamame soy beans
Serves 4-6
200g red cabbage, thinly sliced
200g drained Hayward’s beetroot slices, cut into batons
50g walnut pieces
2-3 small carrots, cut into matchsticks
1 medium red onion, thinly sliced into half moons
1 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tbsp wine vinegar (red or white are both fine)
1 tbsp clear honey
100g frozen soya beans
salt and pepper to taste1. In a large bowl, place the red cabbage, Hayward’s beetroot, walnut, carrot and red onion.
2. In a small jug, make the dressing by mixing the groundnut oil, wine vinegar and clear honey. Mix with a fork or small whisk.
3. Pour the dressing over the salad ingredients and combine throughout. Refrigerate and cover if not serving right away.
4. When ready to serve, cook the soya beans either by boiling or microwaving for a few minutes according to pack instructions. Once cooked, cool the beans down in cold water and drain. Scatter the cold beans on top of the salad vegetables and serve.
For other lively uses of pickles take a look at:
Spiced mango quince chutney at Franglais Kitchen
Posh pickled onions at How To Cook Good Food
Smutty sweet chilli jam at Tinned Tomatoes
Purple Pickled Eggs (Diana Henry recipe) at My Custard Pie
Beetroot boquerones Maison Cupcake
Recipe commissioned by Haywards, photography courtesy of Haywards. For more beetroot recipes visit their website Liven Up Your Food.
Rosa says
A fabulous salad! Very colorful and so flavorful.
Cheers,
Rosa
Laura@howtocookgoodfood says
Love the look of your site now Sarah! I adore winter crunchy salads and this would make a welcome addition to a boxing day meal or even as a tasty lunchbox. The colours are those I associate with winter salads. Beetroot is a big fave of mine too.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
I am definitely pairing beetroot and red cabbage in another salad this Christmas! Glad you like the new site 🙂
Helen @ Fuss Free Flavours says
A lovely salad and memories Sarah.
Our salads at primary school always had chunks of celery in them. Vile stuff.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Oh dear, I am a bit fussy with celery. It has to be diced and no signs of strings whatsoever!!
Dom says
I do love a shredded salad… your blog always looks so summery despite this miserable weather xx
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Sssssh the recipe was done in the summer but don’t tell anyone!!
Urvashi says
Firstly loving the new look website. Secondly this salad is almost exactly what I had for lunch a few days ago at work. Love the combo. It’s so filling.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Thank you 🙂
kellie@foodtoglow says
When I first moved here 30 years ago from Florida (for uni first of all) I went into culture shock with the ‘salads’ on offer. It was just as you describe but if the restaurant was being fancy it might have a blob of salad cream, a pineapple ring and some grated cheese. Woo hoo ! I found this totally alien and not a little frustrating as vegetarian. Happily things couldn’t be more different now. I have grown to really love beetroot and now wouldn’t consider a salad dressed without a tangy sliver at the very least. This is gorgeous, Sarah. And I also find sounds transport me back in time.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Oh golly you’ve reminded me of 80s gammon and pineapple. Not sure I want to revisit that…
Sally - My Custard Pie says
I caused much rushing around and scratching of heads when I asked for edamame beans in Asda last summer. Glad to see they are in the UK now – I love them and this salad looks so appealing.
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
The packets just say soy beans – that might confuse staff in supermarkets. I just thought endamame sounded sexier!
Judith (Mostly About Chocolate Blog) says
I totally understand about the noise taking you back. I wish I had some of my Grandmothers bits 🙂 But I also agree with the colour inspiration – what a great (if too healthy) salad!
Sarah, Maison Cupcake says
Funny purple and green wouldn’t go together that well in everyday life but in food it works beautifully!
Nazima, franglais kitchen says
lovely colours in this shredded salad Sarah – I like your remembrance of salads in decades past – how much we have moved on, with the flavours and ingredients from abroad we now have access to. I love edamame so will be making this for lunch. Pinning it to my veggie board too
Isabella says
I love the look of this, the colours are incredible! You can’t beat a proper salad with lots of yummy ingredients especially after eating too much over christmas…
Emily @amummytoo says
Truly gorgeous photos, Sarah and a very temptingly colourful dish.
Michelle @ Greedy Gourmet says
Great looking salad! Yes, the standard salad offering (lettuce, tomato and cucumber), especially in non-upmarketing British restaurant, is pretty dire, isn’t it? M & S also makes gorgeous salads, some which include edemame.
Janie says
A gorgeous salad bursting with vibrancy and colour! And you took me back in time to Howards Way Sarah, I LOVED that show 😀
Janie x