It was TF's birthday today. She chose spaghetti a la carbonara as her birthday meal. And, as usual, she made it herself. But I wanted to do up some sides to go with it. Since, while carbonara is delicious, it's also not exactly health food. And I felt the need to try to put some greens on the plate.

I picked up a head of broccoli and roasted it with a drizzle of olive oil and some salt and pepper. But I figured that another vegetable side wouldn't go amiss, so I put together this salad as well.

The suggestion for topping it with toasted walnuts and orange segments came from a thread on Reddit. The same user also suggested adding either goat cheese or shaved Parmesan as well as a few olives. I chose to add the Parmesan, but omitted the olives.

For the dressing, I went with a slightly modified version of a lemon vinaigrette recipe found on Love & Lemons. I added a bit of red wine vinegar and half a shallot to mine, reduced the salt slightly, and omitted the thyme.

I'm really happy with how the salad worked out overall. And, as an added bonus, I drizzled a small amount of the dressing over the broccoli when it came out of the oven. I feel like the bright citrus flavours worked really well with the roasted broccoli. And the acidity helped balance the fat from the carbonara somewhat. All-in-all, a good combination!

Arugula Salad with Clementines and Walnuts

Adapted from Reddit and Love & Lemons

Ingredients

Vinaigrette

• 1/4 c. lemon juice
• 1 Tbsp. red wine vinegar
• 1/2 shallot, thinly sliced
• 1 clove garlic, minced
• 1 tsp. Roman mustard
• 1/2 tsp. honey
• 1/8 tsp. coarse sea salt, ground
• 1/8 tsp. black peppercorns, ground
• 1/4 c. olive oil

Salad

• ~100g arugula
• 2 clementines (or 1 orange), sectioned
• 3-4 Tbsp. walnuts, toasted and chopped
• shaved Parmesan

Directions

1. Combine the lemon juice, vinegar, shallot, gerlic, mustard, honey, salt, and pepper and mix well.
2. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking vigorously. Set aside.
3. Place the arugula in a salad bowl and top with clementines and walnuts.
4. Spoon some of the vinaigrette over. (You will not need it all.)
5. Top with Parmesan shavings and serve.