Yotam Ottolenghi’s spring salad recipes | Salad (2024)

This cusp between the seasons brings with it a rethinking of the domestic and professional menu alike. I adore winter, with its warming heartiness, but the food of spring truly excites me. Zingy flavours (tart green almonds, sour sorrel, sharp pomelo) combine with the natural sweetness of fresh new leaves to add a punch to spring salads that resets the palate and stimulates the spirit.

Lightly pickled spring veg with wasabi and ginger cream

This dish is beautifully colourful. It’s important not to overcook the vegetables, or to pickle them for too long, or they will discolour. You want them all roughly the same size, so they take the same amount of time to cook: if the asparagus is very thick, cut it lengthways down the middle; if the carrots are tiny, leave them whole. If you’re lucky enough to get carrots and radishes with their leaves attached, just trim the stalks to 2cm long: that will give the dish a lovely rustic look. Serves six.

2 tbsp white-wine vinegar
1 tsp caster sugar
10g tarragon leaves
60g fresh peas (or frozen and defrosted)
5g pea shoots (or watercress)
1 tsp urfa chilli flakes (or half that amount of regular chilli flakes)

For the ginger and mustard cream
5cm piece fresh ginger, peeled
150g mascarpone
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp wasabi paste
Heat the oven to its highest setting (250C). Put the asparagus, courgettes, fennel, carrots and radishes in a large bowl with the oil, garlic, half a teaspoon of salt and a good grind of pepper. Mix well, then arrange on two large oven trays lined with baking paper, making sure the trays aren’t overcrowded. Roast for eight to 12 minutes, until starting to brown and just cooked (the vegetables should still be crunchy) then transfer to a large bowl and leave to cool.

For the ginger and wasabi cream, finely grate the ginger into a bowl, then squeeze the flesh through a fine sieve, collecting all the juice (you should get about a tablespoon and a half). Discard the fibrous flesh and stir the juice into the cheese with the lemon juice, wasabi and an eighth of a teaspoon of salt.

Divide the cream between six small plates or one large platter, spreading it out into a 0.5cm-thick layer. Divide the vegetables between the plates, arranging them randomly over the cream, dot with the peas, pea shoots and any fennel fronds, and finish with a sprinkling of chilli.

Burrata with sorrel and pea salsa

If you can’t get sorrel, use young spinach leaves instead, adding an extra squeeze of lemon to compensate for their lack of sharpness. You can also use buffalo mozzarella instead of the burrata, if you prefer. Serves four as a starter.

Take the burrata out of the fridge when you start making the salsa: you don’t want it to be fridge-cold.

Bring a small saucepan of water to a boil and blanch the peas for a minute. Drain, refresh under cold water, drain again and put in a bowl. Add 30g of the sorrel, the mint, a teaspoon of nigella seeds, half a teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper.

Put the remaining sorrel in the small bowl of a food processor with the olives, oil, a quarter-teaspoon of salt and plenty of pepper. Blitz smooth, then stir into the pea bowl and set aside for 10 minutes.

To serve, tear each burrata in half and divide between four small plates. Spoon the sorrel and pea salsa on top, sprinkle each portion with a pinch each of the remaining nigella seeds, lemon zest and a pinch of salt. Drizzle over half a teaspoon of lemon juice and serve.

Green almond salad

Almonds picked at this time of year are often raw and green. They consist of an inner core, which turns into the familiar dried almonds, and a fuzzy outer skin that comes off later in the season. In the eastern Med, green almonds are eaten in their entirety. They are intensely sharp and really wake the tastebuds. You can eat them as they are, just dipped in salt, but I prefer them sliced and added to salads. If you can get it, use purslane instead of lamb’s lettuce here; it has a gloriously succulent texture. This salad is great with roast meat or slow-cooked stews. Serves four as a side dish.

120g green almonds, cut into 1mm slices (use a mandoline, if you have one)
2½ tbsp lemon juice
60g lamb’s lettuce (or purslane)
10g parsley leaves, roughly chopped
5g chervil leaves (or 10g basil leaves, torn)
5g mint leaves, shredded
1 small garlic clove, peeled and crushed
1½ tbsp olive oil
⅓ tsp nigella seeds
Salt

Mix the almonds with the lemon juice and marinate for 30 minutes (this stops them going brown). Just before serving, toss everything else bar the nigella seeds in a bowl with an eighth of a teaspoon of salt, stir in the almonds and the lemony liquid, sprinkle on the nigella and serve.

Seared prawns and pomelo salad

For the dressing
60ml water

60g palm sugar (coarsely grated, if using a block)
100ml lime juice (ie, the juice from about 5 limes)
1 tbsp fish sauce
2 red chillies, cut into julienne strips
4cm piece fresh ginger, peeled and cut into julienne strips
1 garlic clove, peeled and crushed

For the topping
120g peanuts, roughly crushed
2 tbsp groundnut oil
1 tbsp sesame seeds

First, make the dressing. Bring the water and palm sugar to a boil in a small saucepan, stirring to dissolve the sugar, then cook for three to four minutes, until thick and reduced by a third. Take off the heat and stir in the lime juice, fish sauce, chillies, ginger and garlic, and leave to cool.

Put the pomelo, shallots, mint and basil in a large bowl, but do not stir.

Pour the dressing into the pomelo bowl and stir gently but thoroughly. Divide the salad between six plates, top with the prawns and then with the warm peanut topping, and serve at once.

• Yotam Ottolenghi is chef/patron of Ottolenghi and Nopi in London.