Kale and Beetroot Salad With White Anchovies

It was a stand off. It was almost midnight and I stood in front of the bed with my arms spread wide.

"You're not getting on the bed until you have a shower!" I told him in a serious tone.

"Nah it'll be fine. I'm like a self cleaning oven" he answered back smiling.

"No, go and have a shower!" I answered my arms still up, defending the bed.

This went on for a few more minutes until Mr NQN finally relented and had a shower. It's a routine we go through pretty much every night. Mr NQN tries to go to bed without having a shower and I defend the clean sheets on the bed. Ironically, once he gets in the shower he loves it and showers until the water almost runs out.

I figure that if we ever have kids, it'll be the same routine doubled or tripled each night and that is quite frankly exhausting. I could let him come to bed unshowered but he cycles to and from work and is sticky and I love my clean sheets and bed.

With all of that night time drama, one thing that I don't have trouble with is getting him to eat vegetables. In fact I have trouble getting him to eat bread, cakes and meat but vegetables and fruit? He wolfs them down.

One day I made him this kale and beetroot salad with white anchovies. Dear Reader I will confess that I tossed up whether to put white anchovies in the title because I thought it might turn you off. White anchovies are the milder, plumper version of brown anchovies pickled in vinegar rather than brine and they can be eaten whole. They're also absolutely delicious and quite different from the brown ones in both texture and strength of flavour.

White anchovies impart such a wonderful savoury element to a salad. The salad dressing is a mixture of olive oil, balsamic vinegar and honey as well as a tablespoonful of the white anchovy oil. The rest of the salad is incredibly easy with just kale, thinly sliced beetroot and red onion. Yet somehow the salad is a best viewed as a sum of the parts. If you love savoury flavours, then I urge you to give this simple but divine salad a try.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a husband to wrangle ;)

So tell me Dear Reader, do you go through a similar routine?

Kale, Beetroot and White Anchovy Salad

An Original Recipe by Not Quite Nigella

Serves 4 as a side salad or 2 as a main salad

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Cooking time: 0 minutes

• 1 bunch curly kale, washed
• 1 uncooked beetroot, peeled
• 1/2 red onion, peeled
• 9-12 white anchovies (depending on how much you like them)
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
• 1 tablespoon white anchovy oil (the oil that it is marinated in)
• 1 tablespoon raw honey
• Freshly ground black pepper

Buyer's note: white anchovies are found at delis and gourmet stores

Step 1 - Remove kale from the stalks and chop if necessary (I'm a bit heavy handed when I strip kale and it ends up in smallish pieces anyway). Place in a large mixing bowl.

Step 2 - With a mandolin, thinly slice the beetroot and red onion. Mix with the kale.

Step 3 - Whisk the olive oil, vinegar, white anchovy oil and honey together. Pour over the dressing and toss with clean hands. Place on serving plates and place two or three white anchovies on each plate. Dress with freshly ground pepper - I find that it doesn't really need salt because of the anchovies.