Name: Spinach, olive and preserved lemon salad (Salade d’épinards aux olives et citrons confits)
Yield: Serves 4–6
Cuisine: Iranian
Ingredients: 1 tbsp olive oil; salt, to taste; 1 tsp ground black pepper; knob of butter; 2 kg (4 lb 4 oz) spinach, roughly chopped; extra-virgin olive oil, to drizzle; 1 tsp ground cumin; 1 preserved lemon, finely sliced; handful of pitted black olives; leaves from 3–4 stems of flat leaf parsley, finely chopped; juice of ½ lemon; 2–3 garlic cloves, peeled and crushed

Preparation info

Serves
4–6

Difficulty
Easy

Appears in

The North African Kitchen

By Fiona Dunlop

Published 2008

About

The first references to spinach are from Sasanian Persia (about AD 226–640) and when it reached China it became known as the ‘Persian green’. The first mention of it in the Mediterranean was in the 10th-century medical work of Al-Razi and in two agricultural treatises, one by Ibn Wahshiya, the other by Qustus al-Rumi. With that knowledge under your belt, this salad should be doubly satisfying.