New Food Friday: Spinach and Pine Nut Salad

Welcome to my first New Food Friday! Where there will be a new recipe every Friday for not just me to try but I will also be sharing my experience and the recipe with you for you to try out! This week I tried a spinach and pine nut salad. The recipe is very specific but it did leave a lot of room to make changes and adjust for your own taste which is exactly what I did. I decided not to try the bread crumb topping portion of the recipe but at some point I do hope to come back and try it out. I salad was amazing. I didn't use the exact portion sizes because I was making one for myself and not 4 people, so in the end the dressing was a little to oily and not as sweet as I would've hoped.

Makes 4 servings
Prep time: 15 minutes
Cook time: 10 minutes

What you Need:

• 9oz (250g) baby spinach leaves
• handful of juicy raisins (optional)
• 3 1/2oz (100g) sun-dried tomatoes, roughly chopped
• 1 3/4oz (50g) pine nuts, toasted
• (I also used dried cranberries which were delicious) 

FOR THE DRESSING

• 3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
• 1 tbsp orange juice 
• pinch of sugar
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

FOR THE BREAD CRUMB TOPPING

• 2-3 slices of (gluten-free) bread, torn
• pinch of dried chili flakes

What to Do:  

1. For the dressing, mix the ingredients together in a bowl, taste, and adjust the seasoning as needed. Set aside. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C).
2. For the bread crumb topping, put the bread in a food processor and pulse to form crumbs. Pour the crumbs into a roasting pan and bake for 5-10 minutes, or until golden. Don't let them brown. Stir the chili flakes and salt and pepper into the crumbs. Set aside. 
3. To assemble the salad, pour the dressing into a large salad bowl and swirl it around. Add the spinach leaves and shake so they get coated. Add the raisins (if using) and sun-dried tomatoes and toss gently. Top with the pine-nuts, sprinkle the bread crumbs over the top, and serve. 

Statistics per Salad:

Energy: 270kcals/1124kJ
Protein: 6g
Fat: 19g
Saturated Fat: 2g
Carbohydrate: 17.5g
Sugar: 9.5g
Fiber: 4g
Salt: 0.8g

Recipe from:
The Gluten-Free Cookbook By Heather Whinney, Jane Lawrie, and Fiona Hunter.

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