Baby Spinach Salad with Dates and Almonds

If you’ve made even a cursory glance at the food blog world over the last several months, you’ve probably noticed bloggers and food lovers everywhere gushing over Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Temimi’s Jerusalem, a beautifully photographed cookbook/ love letter to the food of Jerusalem. It is widely regarded as the best cookbook of last year, and rightfully so. They say that if you can find one good recipe in a cookbook that will become a part of your regular mealtime routine, it’s a good buy; if that’s true, this book is worth its weight in gold. Every recipe I’ve tried in this book has done one of three things: made me think of new ways to use familiar ingredients, made me cook the same thing three nights straight because I just couldn’t get enough of it, or has reinvigorated my enthusiasm for ingredients that had grown mundane to me. In other words, so far, everything I have cooked from this book has been nothing less than fantastic.

That said, this salad is possibly the recipe that excited me least in this book. Spinach, dates, pita, and onions? It sounded like Israeli panzanella, which sounds good, but I probably would have passed over in it favor of something more exotic and new to me had I not been so impressed by everything else I have tried in Jerusalem. I’m glad I didn’t, because it turned out to be the perfect trifecta of flavor, texture, and balance, and it gives me something to do with any stale pita I have lurking on my counters. The toasted pita bits are crunchy and toothsome, slightly spiced and sweet with sumac and pepper flakes (I used Aleppo pepper, and another time I just traded both in for za’atar, which was equally good), and the lightly pickled red onion and dates strike a perfect sweet and sour balance against the spinach. I think most people would like this as a first course, but this has been dinner for me for two days, and tonight might make it three.

Baby Spinach Salad with Almonds and Dates

Jerusalem

1 tbsp white wine vinegar
½ medium red onion, thinly sliced
3½ oz / 100 g pitted Medjool dates, quartered lengthwise
2 tbsp / 30 g unsalted butter
2 tbsp olive oil
2 small pitas, about 3½ oz / 100 g, roughly torn into 1½-inch / 4cm pieces
½ cup / 75 g whole unsalted almonds, coarsely chopped
2 tsp sumac
½ tsp chile flakes
5 oz / 150 g baby spinach leaves
2 tbsp freshly squeezed lemon juice
salt

Put the vinegar, onion, and dates in a small bowl. Add a pinch of salt and mix well with your hands. Leave to marinate for 20 minutes, then drain any residual vinegar and discard.
Meanwhile, heat the butter and half the olive oil in a medium frying pan over medium heat. Add the pita and almonds and cook for 4 to 6 minutes, stirring all the time, until the pita is crunchy and golden brown. Remove from the heat and mix in the sumac, chile flakes, and ¼ teaspoon salt. Set aside to cool.

When you are ready to serve, toss the spinach leaves with the pita mix in a large mixing bowl. Add the dates and red onion, the remaining olive oil, the lemon juice, and another pinch of salt. Taste for seasoning and serve immediately.