Warm spinach salad with scallops and chanterelles

This warm spinach, scallop and chanterelle salad, with the master recipe of head chef Philippe Laruelle, is exquisite; you only have to make it to be convinced.

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

With these three wonderful ingredients we achieve a salad with many colors and flavors that blend harmoniously, as if they were born to be together. The finishing touch is a walnut oil vinaigrette and a handful of chopped walnuts. You can't deny that this salad is not a complete dish, eye-catching, nutritious and full of flavor.

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

Ingredients for 4 people

• 12 scallops (meat only, without the shell)
• 500 g of spinach shoots
• 100 g of chanterelles
• 25 g of butter
• 1 small clove of garlic (or half if large)
• 1 tablespoon of balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons of walnut oil
• 1 handful of chopped walnuts
• extra virgin olive oil (EVOO)
• Salt and freshly ground black pepper

Preparation

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 a little EVOO in your Choc Extreme De Buyer nonstick frying pan, gently sear the scallops and set aside.
3. In the same pan, add a little more extra virgin olive oil. When it's hot, gently brown the chanterelles and set them aside with the scallops.
4. Add the butter to the pan along with the peeled garlic clove sliced thinly or chopped.
5. When the garlic begins to change color, sauté the spinach for a minute, stirring so it absorbs the flavor.
6. Arrange the scallops and chanterelles over the spinach, distributing them gracefully.
7. Serve the salad in the same pan, dressed with the vinaigrette prepared in the first step of the recipe and with some chopped walnuts. Enjoy!

Notes

• Feel free to adapt the recipe to your taste! With scallops it's a delight, but I'm sure that if we swap them for monkfish medallions, prawns, fresh or smoked salmon, or chicken cubes, the salad will still be delicious. And you'll have a variation to change the recipe on each occasion.
• 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 chopped hazelnuts or salted almonds. Why not?
• If you don't have walnut oil, one option to give a bit of its flavor to the vinaigrette is to add some crushed walnuts when preparing it. You can use a mortar and pestle to chop or grate them with a fine grater, incorporate them into the vinaigrette and mix well.
• If you prefer, you can serve the spinach without sautéing, raw as is. Its flavor is also delicious.