On a drunken night in Portugal, I asked some chefs to show me their country’s drunk food. They happily obliged by taking me to a place that served something like a choriz pao and caldo verde, a Portuguese soup made with beans, potatoes and kale. The eatery served limitless bowls of soup, but you had to buy the bread. The memory of that night stayed with me and I thought why not riff on caldo verde. For the opening menu of O Pedro, we created this salad with a kokum vinaigrette.

  • Serves

    4

  • Cook Time

    00 h 25 m

Ingredients

  • 5 cups baby kale, loosely packed
  • 3 cup baby arugula, loosely packed
  • ½ cup diced green apples
  • ½ cup sliced onions
  • 8 tbsp husk smoked almonds

For Kokum Dressing

  • ½ cup unsweetened kokum extract
  • 1½ cup sunflower oil
  • 2 tbsp green chillies
  • 2 tbsp jaggery
  • 1 tbsp finely chopped onions
  • 2 tsp grated garlic
  • Salt to taste 

Preparation

  1. Rinse the salad leaves gently in water and spin in a salad spinner to get rid of the excess water.
  2. Arrange the leaves in an overlapping-shingle pattern on absorbent kitchen paper and cover with damp kitchen paper. Store in the refrigerator.
  3. Arrange the almonds on a baking tray in a single layer. Toast them in a preheated oven at 140°C for 11-12 minutes. Cool and slice each almond into three slivers.
  4. In a large blender jar, add the dressing ingredients, except the sunflower oil and salt. Blitz on high speed for 1 minute.
  5. Now reduce the speed to low and slowly add in the oil in a thin stream until the oil is emulsified. Taste and season with salt.
  6. In a large mixing bowl, toss in cleaned salad leaves, diced green apples and sliced onions.
  7. Drizzle in 3-4 tbsp of kokum dressing and toss gently, making sure every leaf is glazed with the dressing.
  8. Sprinkle with the slivers of husk smoked almonds and serve immediately.
  9. The leftover kokum dressing will keep in the refrigerator for 4-5 days.
Written by

Hussain Shahzad

Hussain Shahzad, the Executive Chef at O Pedro, a Goa-inspired restaurant in Mumbai, is Scroll Food’s Chef of the Month for October. He started his career with the Oberoi Group of Hotels in Mumbai, before moving to New York, where he worked at the iconic Eleven Madison Park. His culinary adventures have taken him around the world and included a brief stint as a personal chef to Roger Federer. Before taking the reins at O Pedro, he was a part of the team at the award-winning The Bombay Canteen. A dynamic and bold chef, Hussain’s food philosophy is to showcase local produce using contemporary culinary techniques.

See more by Hussain Shahzad