Spinach Salad with Garlic Dressing

This is a classic spinach and egg salad with garlic in the dressing.
The bacon is optional.

Spinach Salad with Garlic Vinaigrette

• a bowlful of well washed, torn spinach leaves
• sliced green onions
• sliced hard boiled eggs - about one egg per serving
• bacon cooked until almost crisp and chopped - one or two slices per person
• garlic vinaigrette (see below)

Make the garlic vinaigrette using olive oil. Use a little less oil than called for in the recipe to offset the richness of the egg yolks and bacon.

Reserve some egg slices. Toss the salad well until the egg yolks begin to amalgamate with the salad dressing. Garnish with edible flowers and egg slices.

Garlic Vinaigrette

Here is a classic recipe for a garlic salad dressing that goes well with a wide variety of salads.

1/4 cup pure apple cider vinegar
1/2 cup olive oil or other cold pressed oil
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon black pepper
one or more cloves of garlic, crushed, chopped or sliced

Shake the first four ingredients together and taste. There should be a nice balance with no one ingredient dominating. Adjust if necessary, and then add the garlic.

Choose a garlic that you like the taste of raw. Spanish Roja is one of my favourites; it is milder and more subtle than many of the others. For some people the hotter the better. For them I might choose Leningrad, which is very pungent. When I have time to let the dressing sit for an hour or so I slice the garlic thinly and let it marinate. The flavour of this dressing changes over time and so I prefer to make it up fresh every day.

When I was testing the recipe for exact quantities I used extra virgin olive oil. I used my garlic press for instant flavour and squished in one large clove of Puslinch, a Rocambole garlic. The vinaigrette was so delicious that my husband and I sat down and demolished a plain bowl of iceberg lettuce with this dressing.