Tright here’s a advantageous line when a bag of salad turns. One minute, it’s good, and the following it has was compost. To save lots of a wilting salad, cooks are taught to refresh it by selecting out and discarding any imperfect leaves and gently plunging the remainder into ice-cold water (the addition of a big pinch of salt and acidulating the water with a splash of vinegar or lemon juice will assist clear the leaves and take away any undesirable odours). Rigorously carry the leaves out of the water slightly than drain them, in any other case sand and grime may cling to them.
In case your leaves are now not recent and appetising-looking, however nonetheless advantageous to eat, why not cook dinner them? Salad leaves make an incredible substitute for leafy greens reminiscent of spinach, kale or cabbage. Nearly all bagged salads, which regularly comprise child spinach, rocket and beetroot leaves, may be was probably the most scrumptious soup.
Salad bag soup
Wilted salad leaves aren’t particularly interesting, however for those who catch them earlier than they flip fully, use them up on this splendidly easy, super-quick, protein-rich and vibrant inexperienced dish. Take away and discard any bruised leaves, wash in chilly water, then fold into the soup base and mix.
I usually use cooked white beans to thicken my soups as a nutritious different to potatoes, and since I like their delicate flavour, however on this event I had run out, so used chickpeas as a substitute. To make that acquainted chickpea flavour make extra sense, I additionally added some toasted cumin and a squeeze of lemon juice, they usually labored a deal with.
This dish is much like watercress soup, so I’d serve it with a drizzle of double cream on high, together with a swirl of extra-virgin olive oil and plenty of freshly floor black pepper.
Serves 2
2 tbsp olive oil
1 onion, peeled and finely chopped (about 100g)
1 massive garlic clove, peeled and roughly chopped
400 tin white beans, or chickpeas, together with the liquid
50-100g ready salad leaves
Non-compulsory toppings
A squeeze of lemon
Further-virgin olive oil
Cream
Tender goat’s cheese, crumbled
Toasted spices, reminiscent of cumin, coriander and/or nigella seeds
Put a superb glug of oil in a saucepan on a medium-high warmth. Earlier than the oil will get too sizzling, add the onion and garlic, and cook dinner, stirring sometimes, for 2 to 3 minutes, maintaining a tally of the warmth to stop any browning.
Add the white beans and the aquafaba from the tin, then pour in sufficient boiling water to cowl every little thing by a couple of centimetre. Carry to a boil, then flip right down to a simmer and cook dinner for 3 minutes. Off the warmth, fold within the salad leaves, then mix clean and season to style. Prime with extra-virgin olive oil and a drizzle of cream, for those who like, and/or a little bit crumbled tender cheese or a plant-based different.
