The idea for this salad came one Sunday morning when I was out walking the dogs.  A bright sunny and warm morning was reflected in the hedgerows showing off their display of colours and every shade of green imaginable.

 There’s a saying in food that goes “What grows together, goes together”, and this is never more true that when you see wild flowers and wild leaves growing side by side in laneways, ditches and hedges.  As I walked, admiring the wild violets (my favourite wild flower) growing alongside primrose, dandelion, bittercress, pennywort and sorrel, I was struck by the prettiness of the colours and how they were so harmonious together.  I started to concoct an idea for a beautiful summer salad, and as I always have plastic bags with me when I walk for such spontaneous moments of foraging, I began picking just what I would need for a stunning plate of food for lunch.  The sum result is this salad.

Be aware that there are bitter notes on this salad from the grapefruit and the bittercress.  Personally, I liked the mix of tastes from the sweet avocado, the smoky salmon, the citrus tang of the grapefruit and the intense bitterness from the bittercress.  But if you’d rather tone it down, either forgo the bittercress and/or add a pinch of sugar to the dandelion shrub dressing to counterbalance it.

A note on preparing wild flowers for eating.  It’s useful to know what parts of the wild flower is palletable.  Most often, to take out the back stem and stymen is sufficient.  With dandelion flowers you only want the petals, so pull from the flower head but try not to take too much of the furry petal root with you  It’s not the taste that’s the problem here, but you just don’t want or need a cottony texture in your mouth!

Ingredients: (serves 1)

• 75g of good quality wild smoked salmon (not farmed)
• 1 avocado, very ripe
• 1 tblsp crème fraiche
• 1/2 pink grapefruit, peeled with a knife to remove all pith.  remove seeds and cut into thin slices.
• Handful of wild sorrel and pennywort leaves
• Selection of wild flowers: dandelion, primrose, violets, bittercress
• Dandelion Shrub dressing: Shrub, best quality extra virgin olive oil, sea salt, freshly cracked black pepper (optional, pinch of sugar)
• A really nice plate to display it on!

Method:

• Prepare the grapefruit and set aside.
• Sort through the wild leaves, rinse them and drain them on some kitchen towel, set aside.
• Sort through your wild flowers, pick of any inedible bits (stem, stymen, fluff etc..) and set aside.
• Using a hand blender or mini chopper blitz the avocado with the crème fraiche until smooth.  Season to taste, and if you have any grapefruit flesh attached to the skin, squeeze whatever juice you can get from that into the avocado.  Blitz again to combine and set aside.
• For the dressing: I recommend the Wild Irish Foragers & Preservers delicious Dandelion Shrub (BUY IT HERE) but if you can’t get it for whatever reason then maybe use either Elderflower Vinegar or a really good quality organic Apple Cider Vinegar.   As with any dressing work on the basis of 1 part shrub (or vinegar or acid, such as lemon) to 2 parts olive oil.  Add sea salt and black pepper (and sugar if using) and mix to combine.  You don’t need a lot of this so keep your measurement small.
• Then start to assemble the dish.  Take your time plating this dish.  Consider the placement of each of the components and take care with it.  Pretend you are painting a picture as this dish can be very pretty and pleasing to the eye indeed!
• First of all, two generous spoonfulls of the avocado mousse.  Tear the smoked salmon and arrange around the plate.  Then add the grapefruit, wild leaves and dot about with the wild flowers and petals.  Finally, spoon over some of the dressing all over the salad.

Serve immediately and….ENJOY!