Burrata, potato, cannellini bean and pesto salad

Creamy burrata, crispy fried potatoes, cannellini bean salad

I love salads, in fact after listing the main meal types, it’s my only other specific category on this blog (at the time of writing), along with Treats. However, to me, for a salad to be truly enjoyable as a meal, there always has to be an element in there which is perhaps a bit on the naughtier side (not that food should ever really be viewed as good or bad, naughty or virtuous, but you get what I mean, something that probably isn’t going to help with cutting the calories or the cholesterol).  For me this element in a salad is most times some form of cheese.

What if the salad doesn’t just have one “naughty” element but two or more? Is it still a salad when the vegetables become a periphery ingredient to the dish? I had always thought of this dish as a salad until I came to note down the ingredients and pondered over whether I had crossed the line.

This dish has plenty of fresh veg and beans, but it also has creamy burrata, fried crispy potatoes and a liberal pesto dressing. I also happened to add avocado and pine nuts this time round and it occurred to me that whilst there is plenty of nutrition in this dish, it probably weighs in at a very hefty calorie count and would certainly not be the sort of salad one would turn to if trying to cut back.

This is an adaptation of a recipe from Izy Hossack’s blog called Top With Cinnamon, I note she doesn’t call it a salad in the title. I think it’s official then, I am just kidding myself on it’s virtue! That’s not to say you shouldn’t try this though, it’s an absolute winner!

Serves 4

Time: 45 minutes

Ingredients

• 400g potatoes

• Approx 3 tbsp neutral flavoured oil

• 4 small handfuls of rocket, about 100g

• 1 x 400g cannellini beans, drained

• Approx 100g basil pesto (fresh is best)

• 10 pitted olives, sliced

• ½ a red onion diced or sliced thinly as preferred for a salad

• Approx 400g cherry tomatoes, halved (I used a variety selection here)

• 2 avocados, destoned and chopped in to chunks

• 300g ball of burrata or mozzarella cheese

• Approx 20g pine nuts, toasted

• A small handful of fresh basil leaves

• A small bunch of fresh coriander

• Sprinkling of sumac (this adds a tangy, almost lemony flavour, it can be hard to find so if you can’t find it you could add a squeeze of lemon or else just leave out all together)

Method

Crispy fried potatoes

1. Bring a large pot of slated water to the boil. Cut the potatoes (skin on) in to bitesize chunks, about 3cm square. Place in the pan, bring water back to the boil and let bubble away for about 3 minutes. Drain and set aside.

2. Heat a large frying pan on medium to high heat. Add the oil, enough so it covers the base on the pan. Once the oil is hot, add the potatoes and season with salt. Try not to crowd the pan, the potatoes should be in a single layer in the pan. Occasionally turn the potatoes or toss in the pan, so that all sides get browned as far as possible. This is the slowest part of the cooking process and so whilst the potatoes are frying you can prepare the rest of the ingredients. Once cooked, set aside.

3. Mix the cannellini beans with the olives, red onion and pesto.

4. Add the rocket leaves to your serving dishes, and then spread the cannellini bean mix on top.

5. Add the cherry tomatoes and avocado chunks, followed by the potatoes (still warm).

6. Sprinkle the coriander, fresh basil and pine nuts on top.

7. Finally, top with the burrata and finish off with a sprinkling of sumac.