Winter salad with Stilton & pecans

I know I’m a little early with a Winter salad as we’re not quite there yet, but I wanted to share this recipe that I made for my December supper club guests last year. I just remade it for lunch today to double check the recipe and I ploughed through both plates I was enjoying it that much!

Although the recipe has Stilton in, you could easily make a plant-based version of this salad as the dressing is vegan; to make it creamy I’ve used silken tofu rather than egg yolk or a cow’s milk product. I actually find it a little less sickly than a regular ‘mayo’ style dressing as it’s lower in fat. Obviously you’d need to sub the Stilton and I would either add extra pecans, toasted cashews or use a vegan cheese.

• *A note about the dressing: the recipe makes double the amount you need for this salad. The reason I have done this is that silken tofu is usually sold in boxes weighing 300-350g, so I created a recipe to use it all up rather than leaving half a packet to go off in the fridge! I really like silken tofu in ramen or miso soup, but I don’t make them that regularly, so rather than risk wasting the other half, I prefer to make a big tub of dressing that can be used with other things. It lasts a good 10 days (if not longer). Just think of it as of vegan mayo and use it in place of ‘normal’.

Ingredients

Serves 4 as a starter or side

• 1/2 sweetheart cabbage

• 50g sprouts

• 50g curly kale

• 15g parsley, roughly chopped

• A good pinch of sea salt

• 70g stilton or gorgonzola, crumbled or chopped in 1cm cubes

• 45g pecans

• I small apple, chopped in 1cm cubes

Dressing

• I packet of silken tofu (300-350g)

• 140ml olive oil

• 1 small garlic clove 

• 1 tsp dijon mustard

• 2.5 tbsp cider or white wine vinegar

• 3 tbsp lemon juice (approx 1.5 lemons)

• 1/2 tsp table salt

Method

• Preheat the oven to 120ºc.

• Spread the pecans on a baking tray and toast for about 6-8 minutes - keep an eye on them, I’ve lost count of the amount of nuts I’ve burnt. (That sounds a bit wrong now I’ve written it down.)

• Finely shred the cabbage and sprouts using a sharp knife, mandolin or a food processor (slicing attachment).

• Cut the tough stems from the kale and chop the leaves finely; mix all the vegetables and parsley in a large bowl with a good pinch of sea salt.

• Make the dressing by blending all the ingredients in a food processor until creamy. Depending on the weight of your silken tofu you might need to add a little extra oil/vinegar to loosen the mix. The texture should be thick, but just pourable, like a slightly runny mayo.

• Break the cooled pecans into small pieces and add to the vegetables reserving about 1/3 for topping the salad.

• Same for the cheese, add to the bowl and keep a 1/3 to one side.

• Lastly chop the apple into 1cm cubes, add to the bowl and mix well, before pouring in 160ml of the dressing.

• Stir well to coat and then serve, topping each plate with extra stilton and nuts.

This is how thin I like the veggies to be shredded

Tip

• If you want to prep this ahead, then get all the components ready and keep them in separate air tight boxes; mix just before serving. The apple will need a squeeze of lemon to prevent it from oxidising and going brown, or you can chop at the last minute.

• Keeping the various ingredients separate until serving is a trick I use for lots of salads. This means I can get organised earlier in the day and I don’t have much to do when friends arrive for dinner. It also works well to keep a salad fresh if you’ve prepped a batch for lunches during the week.