Artichoke Salad with Goat Cheese
This artichoke salad aka 'spring salad' combines the freshest spring ingredients to bring a beautiful balance, fulfilling salad!
Ingredients
- 14 oz artichokes 1 can
- 1 cup sliced green beans note 1
- 6 asparagus spears
- 4 cups arugula
- 4 green onions white and green part, finely chopped
- 15 mint leaves roughly chopped
- 3 oz goat cheese note 2
- 2 tablespoon lemon juice note 3
- ¼ cup pine nuts
- 4 eggs hard boiled
Instructions
Asparagus
- Preheat oven to 400F/200C.
- Place asparagus in an ovenproof dish and drizzle with ½ tablespoon of olive oil and some salt and pepper. Bake 15 minutes until asparagus starts to get golden and slightly soft. Remove and cut into 2"/4cm pieces.
Eggs
- Fill a medium-size saucepan with cold water and add a pinch of salt. Add eggs and bring to boil.
- Once boiling, turn off heat and leave to sit on the hot pan for 10 to 12 minutes.
- Remove eggs and run under cold water. Then gently peel and slice eggs in half lengthways.
Green Beans
- In the last 3-4 minutes of cooking the eggs, place green beans in the hot water with the boiled eggs and blanch. Run under cold water with eggs to stop the cooking process.
Salad
- Place arugula/rocket in a large salad bowl.
- Drain the canned artichokes (don't wash, it reduces the saltiness of the salad) and gently squeeze out any excess water. Use hands to gently tear asparagus into pieces.
- Place artichokes in a salad bowl, then add roasted asparagus and green beans. Arrange the hard-boiled eggs so that they look pretty!
- Sprinkle over green onions, mint, and pine nuts.
- Finish by adding about half of the goat cheese. You want to pick off just small pieces from the log and sprinkle it roughly through the salad.
- Add a squeeze of lemon juice and toss.
Notes
note 1 - this is a good-sized handful of green beans. I blanch then roughly slice into 3 equal sizes, or in half depending on how long the beans are.
note 2 - most goat cheese that I've seen here come in 4oz packets, you'll use about half to ¾ depending on the size of your salad and love for goat cheese! In Australia, they come in about 120g packets.
note 3 - I use the lemon juice as a dressing. I used about a ¼ of a lemon then added more if I wanted it. Don't go overboard too soon, you can always add more, but can't subtract it!