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Portobello mushroom and celery salad with black garlic sourdough crumbs
Serves 4 Starters and mains
Ingredients
- 50g stale sourdough bread
- 2tbsp thyme leaves
- 5tbsp extra virgin olive oil, plus 2tbsp for brushing
- 6 medium black garlic cloves, roughly chopped or 1 fat garlic clove, finely chopped
- 4 large (about 300g) portobello mushrooms
- a large handful of red salad leaves, such as mustard, beetroot or radicchio
- 1 celery stick, finely sliced on the diagonal
- a handful of celery leaves, torn
For the red wine dressing
- 200ml good-quality red wine
- 5tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 2tsp lemon juice
- 2tsp raw mild honey or maple syrup (for a vegan option)
Method
Addictively gorgeous black garlic can be found online or in delis. It is not strong like fresh garlic but has a deeply savoury and umami flavour achieved by exposing whole bulbs to low heat and humidity over a period of weeks. If you can’t get hold of black garlic use regular garlic instead.
Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/ Gas 6. Line a baking tray with baking parchment.
Tear the bread into small shreds about 2cm in size. Put in a bowl and toss with the thyme, oil, garlic and seasoning. Spread out onto the lined tray and cook for 5-7 minutes or until they become crisp. Tip the bread chunks onto a plate to cool. Heat the grill to high.
Remove any woody parts from the end of the mushroom stems. Turn the mushrooms with the stems facing down and brush with half the oil. Grill them on a rack for 10 minutes or until softened and wrinkled around the edges. Surplus water will ooze out of them so do have a tray underneath to catch the drops. Turn them stem upwards, brush with the remaining oil and season, and grill again until lightly crisp around the outer edge and cooked through. Remove from the grill and keep warm.
To make the dressing, put the wine in a small pan, bring to the boil and reduce to one-third of the original volume, about 60ml. Remove from the heat and pour into a jug with the remaining ingredients and whisk vigorously to combine. Season to taste and set aside to cool.
Mix the salad leaves, celery and celery leaves with a little dressing.
Put the mushrooms onto a plate and splash a little of the dressing over the top. Pile the salad next to them followed by the bread chunks and serve with any extra dressing on the side.
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