Warm Winter Salad

Iceberg lettuce isn't my favourite salad green. I really prefer something with a little bit more flavour like watercress, rocket or even spinach leaves. But they do have a nice crunch and don't wilt easily, so are a good base for a warm salad and the other family members like them and I had one in the fridge. So I made this salad.

Ingredients for four people:

• One iceberg lettuce
• Four eggs
• Two vine tomatoes
• One red onion
• Half a medium sized cucumber
• Eight small white mushrooms
• A couple of handfuls of walnuts
• One small red capsicum
• The seeds of half a pomegranate
• Olive oil
• Balsamic vinegar
• A little sea salt
• Not to everyone's taste but I also used one dried chilli pepper

Method

• Put the eggs into a saucepan and cook until softly boiled but not runny.
• Wash all the salad vegetables in cold water.
• Slice the mushrooms thinly and saute in a little olive, seasoning with sea salt. You may like to add a little crushed garlic towards the end of cooking for extra flavour.
• Meanwhile shred the lettuce, peel and slice the onion thinly and de-seed and cut the capsicum, tomatoes and cucumber into smallish chunks. Place all of these ingredients into a serving dish.
• Remove the shell from the eggs and cut them into eighths and add them to the salad. Season with a little sea salt.
• Add the sautéed mushrooms, drizzling the warm olive oil over the top.
• Toss the salad and add some Balsamic vinegar.
• Top with the pomegranate seeds and walnuts. If using dried chilli chop or crush and sprinkle over the top.

This is one of my favourite kinds of salads for this time of year with a nice combination of textures and flavours. The warm eggs and mushrooms have a nice smooth texture but there's plenty of bite with the nuts and seeds and crunchy vegetables. The eggs and nuts add protein. The pomegranate seeds a nice little sharp zing as well as an amazing colour, the Balsamic a little bit of mellow acidity and I added the chilli because I miss the heat of watercress or rocket leaves.