I rather often deplore that even in a big city like Berlin, it seems next to impossible to find a somewhat decent salad when eating out, wherever it may be. Sure, there are some (surprisingly few, though) lunch places which make it their business to dole out green leaves and the like but none of those seem to find it important to explore the possibilities beyond the forever the same lettuce-tomato-and-cucumber combinations.

Well, here’s my suggestion for a fresh and healthy meal focusing on the color green. Wild herbs, Belgian endive and fresh tarragon make an excellent combination with the tarragon giving an unusual but delicious lemony twist to the dish. Sugar snap peas and mushrooms provide the bite and pink grapefruit bits round off the flavors with a sweet-and-sour touch.

I wanted a bit of a different type of decoration than the usual suspects and thus settled for glass noodles for the sake of the could-be oriental touch of some of the ingredients. The salad is not supposed to taste of glass noodle, though.

Sanni

Ingredients (for 2 servings):

For the salad:

• 125 grams of wild herbs mix (from the market)
• 4 to 5 leaves of Belgian endive
• 2 to 3 branches of fresh tarragon
• approx. 50 grams of sugar snap peas
• approx. 50 grams of small, organic brown mushrooms
• 1 pink grapefruit
• For decoration: a tiny portion of glass noodles

For the dressing:

• 2 – 3 tablespoons of grapefruit juice
• 2-3 tablespoons of olive oil
• 1-2 tablespoons of ruby port
• a few dashes of white wine vinegar
• freshly ground pepper, salt

Preparation:

Preparing the salad:

1. Prepare the glass noodles according to instructions. Let cool down after boiling.
2. Remove the tarragon leaves from the stems. Cut the Belgian endive leaves in half. Wash and dry tarragon leaves and Belgian endives together with the wild herbs.
3. Arrange the leaves on a serving dish but set aside any edible flowers.
4. Wash the sugar snap peas, dry and cut in half. Arrange between the leaves.
5. Wash the mushrooms in a bowl filled with cold water and a tablespoon of flour. Dry gently in a towel and cut into quarters. Arrange between the leaves.
6. Filet the grapefruit as follows: Cut away the bottom and top. Then cut off the peel. Make generous cut so the entire pith  and outside of the skin of the natural partings is cut away. Then cut out the flesh out of the natural partings, leaving behind the skin. Catch the juice and squeeze the juice out of the remaining fruit „carcass“. Set aside for later use in the dressing.
7. Remove any seeds from the grapefruit filets and cut each filet into three parts. Arrange between the leaves. For two servings you will need only abour half of the filets.
8. Cut the glass noodles into approximately 2 cm long strings and sprinkle over the salad.

Preparing the dressing:

1.  Prepare a dressing from the ingredients. Drizzle over the salad.
2. Decorate with the edible flowers set aside earlier.

Enjoy!