Signature recipe: Super green kale and Brussels sprout salad from Colin Clague at Rüya

Anatolian food is as diverse as the vast peninsula itself. Mayfair restaurant Rüya knows this well and ensures their menu reflects the eclectic mix of flavours and ingredients that the country is famous for.

When asked to describe the cuisine to first-timers, executive chef Colin Clague says: “I describe it as like the food of Turkey – whilst having influences from other countries like Armenia and Georgia for example – concentrating on the quality of the ingredients and letting them speak for themselves.

To warm you up in this chilly weather, Clague has created a dish influenced by his time at Jean George – a healthier take on the famous chef’s sprout and kale Caesar salad embracing in-season Brussels sprouts with Mediterranean and Turkish flavours.

What was the inspiration behind this dish?

I used to work with Jean George and he had a sprout and kale Caesar salad, I just adapted it to be a more healthy Mediterranean/Turkish recipe, hugely popular in winter.

If you could describe Rüya in three words, what would they be?

Modern, faithful and inviting.

Super green kale and Brussel sprout salad — Image credit: Lateef Photography

Super green kale and Brussels sprout salad

Serves 3-4 people

Ingredients

Salad

300g kale (remove the stalk, wash and chop julienne)
500g Brussels sprouts
3 tbsp flat leaf parsley
200g baby spinach (remove the stalk, wash and chop julienne)
60g walnuts (roughly chopped)
Large pinch sea salt (to taste)
Freshly cracked black pepper
3 garden red radish (thinly sliced)
200g feta cheese

Lemon and garlic dressing

100g extra virgin olive oil
40g fresh lemon juice
40g bottled water
20g honey
3g garlic minced
40g shallot (cut in half)
5 each sprig of thyme
3 turns freshly cracked black pepper

Method

To make the dressing

Grate the garlic on a micro-plane and whisk together with the lemon juice, water, and the honey in a small bowl.
Whisk in your olive oil, add the shallots and thyme sprigs, season with the black pepper.
Leave to infuse for twelve hours to let the flavours intensify.
Strain through a muslin cloth or a coffee paper and store in an airtight container in the fridge until needed. Note that it will keep up to three days in the fridge.

To prepare the salad ingredients

Take the kale and baby spinach and give them a good wash then dry in a salad spinner.
Once dry remove the stalks and cut into julienne but keep them in separate containers.
Take the sprouts and remove the outer leaves then cut in half and remove the stalk before cutting julienne; keep in a separate container.
Remove the stalk from the flat leaf parsley and rinse – use the salad spinner to dry once again and store in a separate container.
Roughly chop the walnuts and slice the red radish with a peeler to make very thin slices; store in ice cold water until needed.
Crumble the feta cheese.

To serve

Take a large salad bowl and commence layering all of the ingredients; this is the part that comes down to personal taste so you can choose how much of each ingredient you would like to add.
Pile up all of the ingredients in your serving bowl and add the chopped walnuts and the crumbled feta.
Drizzle over the dressing as you don’t want the salad to be wet so maybe serve extra on the side.
To finish, add the radish as a garnish.