Cheese and Onion Salad with Creamy Herb Dressing

Serves 4

In this recipe, you basically pickle the onions very quickly. Usually pickling is a lengthy process, but if you get the onions really finely sliced, the salt and vinegar get to penetrate them straight away. The main rule when you’re making a salad with any kind of onions in it is to make sure that they’re sliced wafer-thin or chopped very small. There’s nothing worse than salads with great big chunks of onion in them – clumsy, lazy, horrible!

ingredients

• 8 small or 4 banana shallots, peeled and finely sliced
• sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
• white wine vinegar
• 1 romaine or cos lettuce, washed and spun dry, leaves separated
• 1 round lettuce, outer leaves removed, washed and spun dry, leaves separated
• 4 large handfuls of mixed salad leaves (such as rocket, oak leaf, and a little dandelion), washed and spun dry, leaves separated
• 100g Roquefort cheese, crumbled
• a good handful of walnuts, toasted and crumbled
optional: a small handful of chive or allium flowers
for the creamy herb dressing
• extra virgin olive oil
• 2 tablespoons crème fraîche
• 1 tablespoon red wine vinegar