Recipe: Silverbeet, golden kumara, plum and walnut salad

I had this at a friend's house a few weeks ago. The original recipe came from Cuisine magazine and used baby spinach instead of silverbeet. I am always trying to find ways to include silverbeet (that could be another column). It flourishes in the garden but is often treated as the poor cousin of the patch.

1

Peel 1kg of golden kumara. Cut into bite-sized chunks, season well and roast with some olive oil. Keep warm.

2 Tear the leaves from the stalks of around 250g of silverbeet. Wilt in a little olive oil and water. Drain the leaves and keep warm.

3 Caramelise 300g of walnut halves. Heat 3tbsp of liquid honey and 2tbsp of grape seed oil (or some other light oil) in a pan. Mix in the walnuts and gently combine all together until the nuts are sticky and lightly coloured.

4 Mix 4tbsp of red wine vinegar and 4tsp of grain mustard with 4tbsp of walnut oil, if you have it. If you don't have walnut oil, use olive.

5 Make a base of the silverbeet, arrange the roasted kumara over this and scatter the sliced plums. Top with the caramelised walnuts and dress with the above dressing.

This is a big, wonderful, full-flavoured dish. It would be good to serve with a simple roast of chicken or pork. You probably wouldn't need to offer anything else as you are getting your greens and carbs from the one plate. This recipe will easily feed 10 as a side dish and leftovers are just as tasty the next day.