Cranberry and Walnut Salad

Necessity is the mother of mother of invention, so when a friend arrived with some ‘shop bought’ breaded Camembert as her contribution to a meal (she was on starters, me on main course and another friend on dessert – it goes without saying that I always have a well-stocked fridge when it comes to cheese……), we expected to find, inside the box, a little pot of Cranberry sauce – as was featured on the packet, but alas it could not be found, and as Christmas was a distant memory, I did not have any lurking at the back of the fridge.

What I did have though were some dried Cranberries which were juicy enough without soaking to liven up a little side salad to compliment the cheese.

In the UK people tend to bring wine (or chocolates) when invited to dinner, in France it is more usual to bring flowers, (as the French are very particular about their wine and if you brought an inappropriate bottle, they would feel obliged to serve it and soil the palate of the meal – sacre bleu!) unless they bring Champagne, which can never be wrong!
My friend Mireille (of Mireille’s favourite ‘Treacle Tart’ fame) always supplies the Champagne, so she is now know as ‘Bubbles’!

These lovely flowers were recently given to me by my friend Marc (who incidently brought wine and Champagne also – he would never get it wrong) And the gorgeous plant was given to me, by a friend of Monsieur le Frog who came to dinner.

Back to the salad…….

Ingredients
Salad

A good handful of mixed salad leaves per person

1 small beetroot very finely sliced

A handful of walnuts, broken into quarters

2 Spring (salad) onions, finely sliced (white and green)

A handful of dried Cranberries

Half a red or green pepper (or both!) finely sliced

Dressing

A tablespoon of olive oil (I used ‘Olivier & Co.’ olive oil with mandarin oil)

Method

Just toss it all together and serve immediately (super with my ‘No Lasagne, Lasagne’)

 (Lindy’s Non Lasagne, lasagne’ and Mireille’s favourite Treacle Tart)