First Fall Salad

I always enjoy a good dinner salad, but these are more difficult to find exciting once fall hits. Gone are the salads full of juicy summer tomatoes or stone fruit, tender butter lettuce, shaved zucchini or handfuls of herbs, and the urge for everything to taste bright and light...

This salad, which marks the change of season, and is the first official fall salad, fills the autumn dinner salad need though - more robust greens, the crunch of apple and pumpkin seed, and a delicious tahini and red miso dressing.

Use whatever greens you like, but they should be on the hearty and bitter end of the taste spectrum; I used a generous handful each of chopped mizuna and shaved radicchio, to which I added a very thinly sliced crisp red apple, peel still on, and a scattering of pumpkin seeds. Then I was generous with the dressing, for a supremely satisfying salad. You could add shaved Parmesan or tear in some Mozzarella if you wanted some additional oomph.

For the dressing:

1 Tbsp tahini

1 Tbsp red miso

2 tsps red wine vinegar

1 tsp lemon juice

1 tsp maple syrup

Place all of the ingredients in a blender and add two teaspoons of water to the mix. Blitz until smooth.