Walnut Spinach Salad with Raw Almond Cheese

You know you’ve stumbled upon a great dish when your boyfriend sends you a text saying “this salad is so sexy”.

If you get turned on by a big bowl of greens, you know you’re on to something.

The salad itself doesn’t seem like anything too spectacular. But the combination of these simple ingredients, a great dressing and some amazing almond cheese make it absolutely extraordinary. And that means alot coming from me, because I generally loathe salads.

This dish is a cinch to make and although the cheese needs to be prepped well ahead of time, it requires little labor and can be stored in the fridge for over a week. I fooled alot of folks when they saw me eating what they thought was feta!

8 cups fresh baby spinach

1 cup chopped raw walnuts

1 cup chopped dried cranberries

1/2 red onion, sliced super thin

WALNUT DRESSING

1/2 cup raw walnuts

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/4 cup water

2 tbsp olive oil

1 tbsp Dijon mustard

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp sea salt

1/4 tsp black pepper

RAW ALMOND CHEESE

1 cup raw almonds, soaked for 8 hours

Juice of 1 lemon

1 tsp salt

To make the cheese, remove the skins of the almonds
Put into food processor with lemon juice and salt and pulse until creamy
Pour into a cheesecloth over a bowl and squeeze excess moisture and form into a flat ball
Let sit in the fridge overnight and then it’s ready to eat
When the cheese has settled, toss all the salad ingredients together in a large bowl
Blend all the walnut dressing ingredients together until creamy
Tear pieces of cheese and toss into salad and then pour dressing over it