Best of the season salad with spring greens & tender lamb

After a long, cold winter, our food choices start to lighten up. We find ourselves celebrating the coming of warmer months with fresher food, like this lovely early season salad of spring greens, topped with crunchy toasted seeds. Paired with seasonal lamb – or another protein of your choosing – this winner is sure to chase away the winter blues.

As the days get a little longer and the chill fades from the air, it’s not unusual for the barbecue cover to come off, the outdoor dining table being dusted down and more time spent in the fresh air, cooking, eating and chatting as the sun goes down. Food starts tasting like summer and there’s a sense of awakening from a long sleepy darkness.

In early spring, produce that’s been absent for a while reappears and vegetables start to feature in light salads, resplendent with new greens that are shaking off their wintry embrace. Pods and stalks and stems all promising lighter meals and fresh flavours.

Welcome back to salad season

This is the season for salads. And what better way to begin than with those fresh spring greens paired with lovely tender seasonal lamb. Or for vegetarians, paired with a veggie burger, falafel or three or even a deliciously fluffy jacket potato.

I have featured this with barbecued lamb cutlets, however it would pair equally well as a side dish with a lamb roast or lighten it up with a chicken kebab, especially when using yoghurt and tahini dressing instead of a vinaigrette. Both dressing options are in the recipe below.

Mix it up to suit your taste

You don’t have to follow this recipe to the letter. You can use this as inspiration and make it your own, so here’s a few suggestions.

• Use baby spinach leaves instead of mixed salad greens.
• Blanch fresh sugar snap peas in their pod, cut into half or thirds at an angle and mix through the salad.
• Top with fetta cheese.
• Use tender white-tipped French radishes, like the ones in the wonderful brunch bowl pictured above, purchased at a lovely little local market in Bordeaux, France while on holiday there in 2023.
• Replace the seeds with toasted nuts: walnuts or hazelnuts work well.

However you choose to make this salad your own, do so with love and enjoy the freshness.

Time to cook

And so, without further ado, let’s make fresh seasonal spring greens salad with some barbecued lamb.

Note, the amounts below make enough for 2 generous bowls of salad with two lamb cutlets each.

Best of the season spring greens salad & tender Lamb

Recipe by Marti CuattCourse: Dinner or lunchDifficulty: Easy

Servings

2

servings

Prep time

15

minutes

Cooking time

10

minutes

Celebrate warmer months with fresh spring greens, tossed together with some glowing beetroots and peppery radish, then finished with a tasty dressing and served alongside spring lamb.

You will need

• For the salad

• 1 bunch fresh asparagus (6-8 stems)

• A handful of fresh green beans, tails trimmed cut into thirds

• ½ cup freshly podded young broad beans (or edamame works well)

• 1 sunny golden beetroot (or other beet of your choosing)

• 3 fresh radishes

• A handful or two of salad leaves of your choice

• 2 tablespoons pepitas

• 1 tablespoon sunflower seeds

• 1 teaspoon sesame seeds

• Vinaigrette dressing (option 1)

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 2.5 tablespoons white wine vinegar

• Juiced of ½ lemon

• ½ teaspoon Dijon mustard

• Pinch of sea salt

• Pinch of brown sugar or a dash of maple syrup or honey

• 1 garlic clove, peeled but left whole

• Yoghurt-tahini dressing (option 2)

• ⅓ cup plain Greek yogurt

• ¼ cup hulled tahini

• 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil

• 1-2 tablespoons lemon juice

• 1-2 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

• salt and freshly ground black pepper

• Protein

• 4 lamb cutlets (or other protein of your choice)

Here’s what to do

• For the salad
• Snap the ends off the asparagus (they’ll break naturally at the right spot), then cut in half. Either blanch for 1 minute in boiling salted water or lightly oil and char on a barbecue grill until tender. Set aside to cool.
• Blanch the green beans in boiling salted water. Drain and set aside to cool.
• Pod the broad beans (or use frozen edamame beans) if substituting. Blanch for 1-2 minutes and set aside to cool.
• Peel the beetroot and slice as thinly as possible (a mandolin works well). If you prefer, grate or boil it briefly to make slicing easier. Slice the radishes thinly.
• Toast the pepitas, sunflower seeds and sesame seeds in a dry hot pan until they start to pop and smell nutty. Set aside to cool.
• If using vinaigrette
• Add all ingredients to a glass jar with a secure lid. Shake well, then taste and adjust the seasoning if needed.
• If using yoghurt-tahini dressing
• Add all ingredients to a bowl and whisk together so the tahini has blended through and is smooth. Taste and adjust seasoning/lemon juice to taste.
• For the lamb
• Season the lamb cutlets with salt and pepper, then lightly coat with olive oil.
• Heat a barbecue grill, heavy-based pan, or frying pan and cook on both sides until just done but still a little pink in the middle.
• Remove from the heat, cover with foil and rest while you assemble the salad.
• Assemble and serve
• Add salad leaves to a shallow bowl or deep plate. Arrange asparagus, beans, beetroot and radishes over the top, then sprinkle with the toasted seeds.
• Drizzle over enough dressing to lightly coat the leaves.
• Serve with the lamb cutlets for a delicious spring lunch or light dinner.

Tips and tricks

• Make sure you blanch the veggies so they’re tender but still crunchy
• If you don’t have a mandolin, par-boil the beets so they’re easy to slice

Try these other light recipes to celebrate spring

Super tasty Thai style chicken burgers with a fresh garden salad

Deliciously simple to make, celebrate of new spring growth with spaghetti and browned butter with sage leaves