Spinach, Avocado and Pawpaw with Cumin-Scented Dressing
Sashay into spring with a sensational African salad. By Lannice Snyman.
Spinach, avocado and pawpaw are ingredients that restore my faith in happy marriages – they were created to share space on a plate. Add sun-dried dates and a seductive dressing with overtones of citrus and cumin, and the creation will bring tears of joy to the eyes of even the most jaded gourmet. If you battle with the notion of a no-meat feast, though, you’re welcome to scatter the salad with smoked fish, chicken or turkey.
Greens have grown wild in Africa since time immemorial and our earliest salads included a variety of wild leaves, watercress (which sprouted along the waterways of the Cape Peninsula and Boland) and the soft, young shoots of the palmiet bulrush. Roots, stems and leaves of sorrel added a sour-ish tang.
Morogo or imfino – which is, in fact, the leaves of more than a hundred different varieties of plants – was the precursor to spinach on the African table. Kids know it as Popeye’s second-best squeeze (Olive Oyle won by a whisker) and it first popped up in Persia (now Iran) many thousands of years ago, hence its Chinese title, poh ts’ai (Persian vegetable).
Spinach later surfaced in Spain via North Africa, courtesy of the Arabs who were almost as fond of gardening as they were of roaming the world. By the late 1500s, the English were munching spinach with huge enthusiasm, and today cooks everywhere prepare it in every possible way. Tropical fruit like pawpaw was introduced to the southern tip of Africa after Indians came to work on KwaZulu-Natal cane fields. And it’s only a short hop from there to Indian Ocean islands like Mauritius, a romantic place that smoothes the wrinkles in your soul. Their cuisine follows – and fuses – French, Chinese, Indian and African influences, and it inspires this salad.
Salads are no trouble to put together an hour or two before serving, and this one is no exception. Cover with clingfilm and refrigerate in the meanwhile. The cuminscented dressing, however, is best when left to mellow in the fridge for a day or two so that the flavours plump up nicely.
Lannice Snyman is one of South Africa’s most experienced and well-respected food writers. This recipe is from her book Posh Nosh – Fabulous Food for Family and Friends (Lannice Snyman Publishers, 2005).
Serves 4 to 6
CUMIN-SCENTED DRESSING
½ cup olive oil
2 T red wine vinegar
Freshly squeezed juice of ½ oranges
2 T freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
1 T cumin seeds, lightly roasted in a dry frying pan
1 T chopped mint
Sea salt and milled black pepper
SALAD
1 large bunch young spinach leaves (small,
rounded, tender leaves of young spinach
are better for salads than larger, tougher
ones)
1 avocado
Freshly squeezed lime or lemon juice
1 medium pawpaw
12 sun-dried pitted dates (optional)
1 red onion, very finely sliced
First make the dressing by whisking the
ingredients in a jug until well combined.
Wash the spinach well, trim the stems,
then dry the leaves in a salad spinner and place
in a bowl. Pour in the cumin-scented dressing and toss
lightly to coat the leaves well.
Halve, skin and stone the avocado. Slice onto a plate
and drizzle over a little lime or lemon juice to prevent
discolouration. Skin, seed and dice the pawpaw. Cut the
dates into slivers.
TO SERVE
The final assembly is pretty much a last-minute
business. Pile the dressed spinach onto a large platter.
Top with avocado, pawpaw and dates, and garnish with
sliced red onion.
