The real signature here is the wild garlic pesto dressing. Made with wild garlic leaves, pine nuts, artisan hard cheese, rapeseed oil, prosecco, and egg yolk, it adds a rich herbal flavor that tastes unmistakably like spring. The seared pork tenderloin gives the salad warmth and substance, making it work as an entrée as easily as a first course.
If you are looking for a German spring salad recipe that feels seasonal, polished, and full of flavor, this one deserves a place on the table.
Spring Salad with Seared Pork Tenderloin in Wild Garlic Pesto (Frühlingssalat mit gebratenen Filetspitzen in Bärlauchpesto-Dressing)
Ingredients
- 7 oz pork tenderloin 200g
- 3 tbsp wild garlic leaves or ramps
- 1 tbsp pine nuts
- 1-1/2 tbsp grated artisan hard cheese
- 1/2 Belgian endive
- 3 oz red leaf lettuce 80g
- 1-1/2 oz mâche, Feldsalat 40g
- 6 small red radishes Radieschen
- 1/4 red onion
- 1/4 each red and yellow bell pepper
- 2 tbsp cold-pressed rapeseed oil (Rapsöl or canola oil)
- 2 tbsp Prosecco
- 1/2 tbsp purified butter Butterschmalz
- 1 egg yolk
- freshly ground pepper
Instructions
- Cut the pork tenderloin in thin slices. Thoroughly wash the wild garlic leaves and chop them coarsely. In a food processor or mixer combine the wild garlic with the pinenuts, rapeseed oil and grated cheese and blend until the ingredients come together in a smooth paste.
- Wash the bell peppers, remove seeds and chop them into small cubes. Wash and clean the radishes and slice them thinly. Cut the Belgian endive into halves, remove the stem, separate the leaves and arrange them in a star pattern on a large serving plate. Wash the red leaf lettuce and the mâche and dry in a salad spinner. Peel the onion and cut it into thin wedges.
- Season the pork with freshly ground pepper. In a pan heat the purified butter and quickly sear the meat on both sides.
- Add the egg yolk and the prosecco to the wild garlic pesto and combine with a whisk. Arrange the lettuces, the radishes and the onion and drizzle with the pesto dressing.
- Add the pork slices, a pinch of salt, the bell pepper cubes and freshly ground pepper and serve immediately.
