Saturday, October 6, 2007

Warming up to fall.


Wilted spinach salad with caramelized red onions, pink ping pong tomatoes, and chevre

This salad was introduced to us about a year ago by my adorable sister-in-law and her brilliant chef of a boyfriend. We were at Thanksgiving dinner and I remember smelling the onions slowly caramelizing in their pan as we began appetizers. Fairly familiar with my mother-in-law's culinary repertoire I was curious to see what new creations were cooking up in her kitchen. And being the nosy daughter-in-law I stuck my nose in the kitchen to see what was cooking :) Shocker, right?

To tell you about the magic of this introduction is pointless... let's just say it has quickly made it into our culinary repertoire on a regular basis.

Anyway, the caramelized onions are gently poured over a base of spinach (in this case the baby variety) that has been lightly salted and peppered and speckled with pink ping pongs. The big finale is the crumbling --okay so it's more like force cut pieces-- of chevre cheese (that's just goat cheese rolled in herbs). The salad is then tossed together and viola! you have a hearty main dish, a delicious and savory starter....or a great fall lunch.

I can't wait to make this salad more often as the weather turns, with the addition of other seasonal goodies like seared butternut squash, roasted carrots, or just some good ole bacon!

7 comments:

Katie Zeller said...

Mmmm, chevre with herbs! I love the sound of the salad, sweet, warm onions with spinach and goat cheese... I wish I would have planted a fall crop of spinach.

Anonymous said...

Couldn't find those ping pong tomatoes to save my life. I guess it was just too crowded on Sat. to really look.

Lindsay Blau Portnoy said...

Katie-
Oh to plant ANYTHING in a garden! If we had any natural light I'm fairly certain we would be growing a few dozen things on our sill. Would you mind sharing photos of your beautiful garden?

Lindsay Blau Portnoy said...

Jackie-
They are the larger than cherry looking tomatoes by the older woman and her hubby that are there only on fridays and saturdays. They have the 2 chinese crested dogs and she is always cutting up tomatoes and shoving them in everyones face. (THANK GOODNESS FOR THAT!)
Let's have a date on Friday and we can seek her out together. I'd love to make a vodka sauce with them next weekend...

Amanda Jean said...

that salad looks delicious! I am pretty sure I am the only one in my house that would eat it, though. :)

david mcmahon said...

Hi Lindsay,

I might not be the most regular visitor for the next three or four weeks because I have to hand over my novel on 31 October - but I'm always just one click away if you need me.

Will always be here for you and other blog friends.

Keep smiling

David

Anonymous said...

Hi Linds,
Mmmm... the salad looks yummy... it is such a staple in our house, what a quick, healthy and delicious dinner (sometimes we'll throw chicken in it too for protein.) I haven't thought to put ping pong tomatoes in, but should give that a try :)
<3 Galina