Warm salad with spinach, scallops and chanterelles

This warm salad of spinach, scallops and chanterelles , with the master recipe of chef Philippe Laruelle , is a delicacy; You just have to prepare it to convince yourself.

One of the things that caught my attention about this salad was the name that the French give to scallops: noix de Saint Jacques or Saint James (or Saint James) nuts. This gastronomic gem , whose shell is the symbol of pilgrims who walk the Camino de Santiago, is one of the protagonists of the recipe, along with lightly sautéed spinach and one of my favorite mushrooms for its flavor: chanterelles.

With these three wonderful ingredients we get a salad with many colors and flavors that go together harmoniously, as if they were born to be together. The finishing touch is a vinaigrette with walnut oil and a few chopped walnuts. You will not be able to deny that this salad is not a complete, colorful, nutritious and full of flavor dish.

And so that you can prepare it without fail and succumb to all its charms, here is the recipe for the warm spinach, scallops and chanterelle salad .

Ingredients for 4 people

• 12 scallops (meat only, shell removed)
• 500 g spinach sprouts
• 100 g chanterelles
• 25g butter
• 1 small clove of garlic (or medium if large)
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons walnut oil
• 1 handful of chopped walnuts
• EVOO
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Elaboration

1. Prepare a vinaigrette with the tablespoon of balsamic vinegar, the two tablespoons of walnut oil, salt and freshly ground black pepper. Stir to mix and set aside.
2. Heat some EVOO in your Choc Extreme De Buyer non-stick frying pan , gently brown the scallops and set aside.
3. In the same pan, add a little more extra virgin olive oil. When it is hot, gently brown the chanterelles and reserve them along with the scallops.
4. Add the butter to the pan along with the peeled and chopped garlic clove.
5. When the garlic begins to change color, sauté the spinach for a minute, stirring to infuse it with flavor.
6. Arrange the scallops and chanterelles over the spinach, distributing them gracefully.
7. Present the salad in the same pan, dressed with the vinaigrette prepared in the first step of the recipe and with some chopped walnuts. Enjoy!

Grades

• As I always say, feel free to adapt the recipe to your taste. With scallops it is a delight, but I am sure that if we change them for some monkfish medallions, for some prawns, for fresh or smoked salmon, or for some chicken tacos, the salad will still be delicious. And you will have a variant to change the recipe each time.
• The same will happen if you prefer to use different mushrooms than those proposed in the recipe. Or if you want to make the vinaigrette differently, using an oil from other nuts or seeds. Or if instead of adding chopped walnuts, you prefer some chopped hazelnuts or salted almonds. Why not?
• If you don't have walnut oil, an option to give the vinaigrette a bit of flavor is to add some crushed walnuts when preparing it. You can use the pestle to chop them or grate them with a fine grater, add them to the vinaigrette and stir well.
• If you prefer, you can add the spinach without sautéing, as is, raw. Its flavor is also delicious.