Christmas Salad with Clementines, Pecans and Proscuitto
This bright and flavourful Christmas salad with clementines, pecans and prosciutto is a simple but impressive holiday starter. The sweet citrus, salty prosciutto and crunchy pecans work beautifully together, especially with a spiced balsamic dressing drizzled over the top. Serve it on its own for a light first course, or pair it with my caramelised onion and brie focaccia for something a little more substantial.
1handful lamb's lettuceor any green salad you prefer
½clementine peeled and broken into segments
5pecans
1sliceprosciutto or other cured ham
1tbspdried cranberries
2tbspChristmas Spiced Balsamic Dressing
Instructions
Toast the pecans gently in a dry frying pan (do not use oil for this) until they become fragrant. Remove from the pan and leave to cool.
Rip the prosciutto into bite sized pieces.
On a small plate, place a bed of green salad (lamb’s lettuce). Arrange the clementines segments, cooled pecans, prosciutto pieces and cranberries on top of the salad. Drizzle with the spiced vinaigrette immediately before serving.
Notes
Make ahead options For an easy Christmas Salad
The pecans can be roasted the day before and kept in an air tight container at room temperature.The individual salads can be arranged on plates an hour or two before your guests arrive, if you have space in your fridge to keep them cool.Otherwise, simply wash the salad, prepare the clementines, toast the pecans and rip the prosciutto into pieces a few hours before and arrange the salads from the prepared components directly before serving.Dress the salad only when ready to serve to keep the greens crisp