This easy winter salad can be served warm or cold and is the perfect side to hearty winter dishes like, stews, pasta bakes and pies. It’s full of fragrant spices and the freshness of lemon and chilli and is everything I want and need to eat right now.

I made this salad because I felt like I’d been letting my serves of veggies fall by the wayside as winter approaches. I really struggle in winter with keeping healthy eating habits at the forefront of my mind. I feel like eating starchy carbs more, cheese more and dessert more. Those things aren’t bad it’s just that the more of them I eat the less room I have for including vegetables. This salad brings the vegetables to the fore front and celebrates them. I’ve been eating the leftovers as a snack throughout the day too and that’s definitely helped with the whole getting more vegetables in my diet thing.

The fact that it can be served warm also makes it the perfect winter side dish. The fragrant coriander and mustard seeds flavouring it are also really warming and pair beautifully with the fresh chili, chives and lemon.

It’s super easy to make, you just need one pan to cook the ingredients in turn and then add to a big bowls as you go and toss at the end. So easy.

Serves 6 as a side dish

Ingredients

1 cup roughly chopped walnuts

4 cups shredded kale

1.5 Tbs extra virgin olive oil

2 tsps mustard seeds

2 tsps roughly crushed coriander seeds

1 head of broccoli, florets shaved and stems  finely diced

1 red chilli, deseeded and finely diced

1 tsp nigella seeds

1/3 cup finely chopped chives (or spring onion)

1 cup finely sliced celery stalks

Juice and zest of 1 lemon

salt and pepper to taste

Directions

Put a large high sided fry pan on medium high heat. Add the roughly chopped walnuts and toast for 1-2 minutes stirring frequently. Remove as soon as they start to colour and place in a large bowl.

In a large bowl add 1/2 a tablespoon the oil to the kale and massage in along with a pinch of salt. Add this to the hot frypan and toss for 2 minute on medium heat. Remove from the pan and add to the walnuts.

Add the remaining oil to the pan and once hot add the mustard and coriander seeds. Fry until they start to make popping sounds and then add the broccoli and toss in the pan to coat. Cook for 1 minute and remove from the pan. Add to the kale and walnuts.

Add the chilli, nigella seeds, celery stalks, chives and juice and zest of the lemon to the cooked vegetables and nuts. Toss to coat, season with salt and pepper and serve. Can be served warm, room temperature or cold.

HH. x