Spinach, arugula and roses salad

It’s June! It is time for fresh salads with lots of greens inside. And it’s the roses season here in Bulgaria so our salad is with roses, that’s inevitable!

Mixing this salad, we are searching for perfect harmony berween lightness of ingredients and richness of flavours – green freshness, fruity sweetness, some crunchiness and the surprising floral elegance of the rose for a mindblowing final. I know, it might sound complicated but in reality it’s as easy and as natural as upcoming summer. Here how it happens – we are mixing spinach, arugula and carrots in a vitamins cocktail. We are adding also some extras – dried fruits and raw nuts. Then we are putting together a special salad dressing that we are tempted to save by copyrights… and instead we share it here with you. Its major advantage is that it has the super power to surprisingly add that rose flavour to every green leaves salad, all year round.

SPINACH, ARUGULA AND ROSES SALAD

INGREDIENTS:
Baby spinach
Arugula
Carrot
Sliced almonds (raw or baked)
Dried cranberries
For decoration – fresh edible rose petals (idealy from rosa damascena but every garden rose will do, as long as it is not recently treated with chemicals or fertilizers).

FOR THE DRESSING:
Olive oil
Balsamic reduction
Fresh lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
5-6 fresh basil leaves
1 full table spoon Rosey’s mark rose jam 
Salt and pepper to taste

PREPARATION:
1. Start with the preparation of the dressing. In a small bowl, mix the rose jam and the lemon juice. Cut finely the basil and add it to the rose jam. Stir well. Add the olive oil and the balsamic reduction, salt and pepper to taste. Stir again and set aside.
2. Slice the carrot in long thin stripes.
3. In a big bowl for salad, mix the already washed and strained spinach and arugula leaves. Add the carrot stripes.
4. Add a handfull of dried cranberries and the sliced almonds.
5. Pour the rose flavoured dressing on top and mix carefully using big salad spoons.
6. To finish, decorate with pre-washed and strained fresh rose petals and serve!

Original recipe created in 2015, with well deserved update in 2020 with this refreshing culinary photography by Mihaela Beloreshka.