Warm Stilton and Baby Spinach Salad

I picked up a trough of growing Japanese Spinach from a local food store last week and fell in love with it straight away! It is so fresh tasting but with a sharp irony tang that really packs a punch. This trough was mixed with baby red pak choi which was also yum. I combined it here with earthy fried mushrooms, savoury veggie sausages, sharp watercress and salty nuggets of stilton to create a warm salad that is super satisfying.

This uses up your HEA for the day (or 5 syns) but is full of speedy vegetables and makes for a filling lunch. If you can't find Japanese Spinach (and goodness knows if I ever will again) then I think a mix of some spicy wild rocket and baby spinach leaves would still make this really sing. SW stalwarts will note that stilton doesn't appear within the HEA list in your book. However, I've checked and, as the calories and protein levels are exactly the same as double gloucester, I've counted the allowance as the same as for that cheese (30g). However, I've taken a little off this to avoid the dish becoming over-powered by the cheese. If you are nervous about this, you could use the same amount of danish blue, which is specified in the book.

As with all recipes and meal plans on the blog I have highlighted the protein sources (P foods) in red, the speed (S) foods in green, healthy extra allowances in blue and syns, with syn values in brackets in orange. 

Warm Stilton and Baby Spinach Salad 

Serves 1 - 1 syn (for sausages) if using HEA for cheese (additional 5 syns if not) 

250g chestnut mushrooms
2 cloves garlic, crushed to a paste
Handful of watercress
Handful of baby spinach leaves 
2 Cauldron Cumberland Sausages (0.5 syns per sausage)
Spray oil
Dark soy sauce
25g of stilton, crumbled finely 

Spray a non-stick pan with spray oil and heat well.

Slice the mushrooms into thick slices (about 4 slices from each mushroom would be good).

Slice the sausages into chunks - each one into about 5 pieces works well.

Toss both into the hot pan, stirring vigorously to stop it sticking.

Add in the garlic and mix well.

As the pan dries out and starts to smoke very slightly, add a good splash of the dark soy sauce and mix.

Once the mushrooms are browned all over and the sausage chunks are toasted on each side, top into a serving bowl.

Sprinkle over the Stilton crumbs immediately to encourage them to melt in the heat.

Grind black pepper over the mixture.

Carefully lay the watercress and spinach over the bowl and serve immediately before the greens being to wilt.

Delicious with a chilled glass of tonic water and lemon!