Salads
Oca and kale salad
When left in its natural state, oca is at its most zesty in flavour. In this salad the knobbly, pink-tinged tubers are thinly sliced to reveal candy coloured rings. Raw curly kale leaves, 'massaged' to break down and soften the fibres, are a good alternative for a winter salad. You could use peppery winter salad leaves instead, if you prefer. Wash your oca well, letting them sit in a bowl of water then giving them a gentle scrub with a veg brush or wipe with a cloth; the soil we grow it in is quite sandy and gritty. There's no need to peel them.
Ingredients
- 75g curly kale, leaves stripped from their stalks and washed
- olive oil
- lemon juice
- 100g oca, washed well
- small handful hazelnuts, toasted, skinned hazelnuts and roughly chopped
- small bunch fresh parsley, roughly chopped
- salt and pepper
Method
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Step 1
In a large bowl, mix the kale with 2 tablespoons of olive oil, a pinch of salt and a little squeeze of lemon juice. Massage the leaves for a few minutes until they just soften slightly.
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Step 2
Finely slice the oca into very thin rings. Mix with the kale, nuts, parsley and add a little more olive oil, lemon juice and seasoning to taste (the oca is quite citrusy on its own, so you may prefer just a little more olive oil or salt).
