Nourish: A hearty, healthful spinach salad, hold the bacon
A warm dressing poured over tender, fresh spinach so it yields just the right amount of rawness always wins me over, but especially so as the weather cools and I look toward dishes with a real comfort-food appeal.
This salad hits the spot with a bold dressing that has big umami flavor and meaty texture, thanks to mushrooms and sun-dried tomatoes. Plus, it has a heady smokiness from Spanish smoked paprika. The flavor combination matches the taste experience that bacon typically provides in such recipes, but in a much more healthful way.
One key to the dressing is to use sun-dried tomatoes that are dry, rather than oil-packed. They are rehydrated in hot water, and you use that soaking liquid, which takes on a deep tomato-y flavor, in the dressing as well, along with extra-virgin olive oil and a splash of sherry vinegar.
Those ingredients meet in a skillet where the mushrooms have been thoroughly browned and tossed with garlic and the paprika.
Once the dressing is warmed through, it is poured over a mix of baby spinach leaves and thinly sliced red onion, then tossed so the greens and onions surrender a bit.
The result is a big-flavored salad that's hearty enough for an evening meal.
• Ellie Krieger's most recent cookbook is "Weeknight Wonders: Delicious Healthy Dinners in 30 Minutes or Less" (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt, 2013). She blogs and offers a weekly newsletter at www.elliekrieger.com.