Food & drink Nigel Slater

Step into spring with these sharp, bright salads

Change is in the air. The long table at the greengrocer’s – a scene of never-ending inspiration – has swapped its warm ochre and crimson tones for a leafy fizz of green. Sprouting broccoli, spring greens and early wild garlic have replaced the beetroot, parsnips and swedes. There are pale curling fronds of frisée and plump bunches of breakfast radishes – shopping once again has a spring in its step.

I have enjoyed this good, long winter with its slow-cooked bean stews and sugar-dusted baking days, but have also been longing for the first days of spring. I want nothing more than to snap crisp stalks and tear up green leaves, tossing them in a pan with a punch of ginger and chilli and a spritz of lime. I want to shred pale, crackling salad and dress it with tart little pickles. And now I can.

I made a refreshing lunch this week of trout fillets with shredded fennel and cucumber tossed with homemade pickled onions. I could easily have used smoked mackerel – exceptionally good with fennel – but the trout has more subtle smoky notes and feels more at home with the bright citrus and vinegared fennel.

Later in the week, I came home with a bundle of spring greens. Their leaves less earthy and bitter than the darkfleshed Savoy and cavolo nero I have been eating all winter. Their stalks sweet enough to munch raw. Shredded, seasoned and stir-fried, they were on the table within minutes of getting home.

Spring greens, beanshoots and lime

Crunchy with roasted peanuts and bright with lime juice, this is a recipe that can be almost endlessly adapted to suit what greens are in season. I made a version with gai lan the other day, and used roasted cashews in place of the peanuts. There is a little prep to do – crushing garlic and chopping spring onions and ginger, shredding spring greens and washing beanshoots – but the cooking is all done in a minute or two. You could veganise the recipe by using a vegan substitute for the fish sauce. Serves 2

garlic 3 cloves

spring onions 2

fresh ginger 50g piece

hot red chillies 2

beanshoots 100g

sprouted mung beans 100g

roasted peanuts 4 tbsp

spring greens 250g

groundnut or vegetable oil 3 tbsp,

plus a little extra

fish sauce 2 tbsp

caster sugar 2 tsp

lime juice 3 tbsp

Thai basil leaves a handful

coriander leaves a handful

Peel the garlic and mash to a paste. I do this in a pestle and mortar with a pinch of sea salt. Discard the root and the very dark green tips of the spring onions, then finely slice. Peel and thinly shred the ginger into matchsticks. Finely chop the red chillies. Wash the beanshoots and sprouted mung beans and shake them dry in a salad spinner or colander. Roughly chop the peanuts.

Wash the spring greens. Lay the leaves on top of one another and roll up tightly. Then slice into finger-thick strips, like pappardelle.

Heat the oil in a wok. When it is hot, add the garlic, spring onions and ginger, and fry, moving them quickly round the pan for a minute or two, then add the chillies. Fry for another minute or so, until very lightly coloured, then remove everything from the pan with a draining spoon or spider.

Add a little more oil to the pan and, when it is hot, add the beanshoots and mung beans quickly followed by the shredded greens. Add the peanuts, fish sauce and caster sugar, then return the aromatics to the pan. Keep everything moving around the pan, stirring and