Wow, I think I just made one of my favourite salads ever. If I had eaten these when I was younger, perhaps I would not be thinking that salads are just boring and horrible. It’s a pity that in my childhood, salad was equivalent to tomato and lettuce, and that’s it.

I was very much inspired by The Oh She Glows cookbook, which had a picture of a beautiful salad with fried onion and portabella mushrooms, which just looked way too gorgeous. I decided to make something similar, but make it in a completely different way.

So I found that cooking the onions on high heat made it smell good. I think it had a similar effect as grilling them. That was a really cool thing I discovered while making the salad. It reminded me of the fried onion they used to have serving sausage sizzles in Australia.

The granny smith apple added a really nice sweetness and crunch. I do recommend that after you cut the avocado and apple, serve the salad immediately as the apple will turn yellow after a while, and that doesn’t look all that pleasing to the eyes.

The spring mix I used had a range of baby lettuces, baby spinach and other greens. I think a combination of different lettuces, baby spinach, arugula, baby kale, radicchio and such would be an excellent combo. Buy whatever mixed greens you can find!

But seriously, if you have people who hate salads, serve them this! I seriously never imagined salads could be so full of flavours, and I wanted more. This usually NEVER happens to me, because salads had always turned me off, because I just never seemed to like the taste of raw vegetables.

Green Salad with Marinated Portabella Steaks and Fried Onion

Portabella Marinade
1 ripe Roma tomato
1/4 cup diced white onion
2 cloves garlic
1 sprig parsley
2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
2 tablespoons white wine
1 tablespoon low sodium soy sauce or coconut aminos
1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
1 tablespoon black cherry juice (or 100% pomegranate juice)
1 teaspoon onion powder
1 teaspoon chili powder
1/4 teaspoon allspice
1/4 teaspoon Himalayan/sea salt
A few sprinkles ground pepper
3 portabella mushrooms

Onion
1 small red onion (or 1/2 medium)
1 teaspoon extra light olive oil
A small pinch Himalayan/sea salt
A sprinkle ground pepper

Salad
A large handful mixed greens (I used 3/4 packet of spring mix)
1 avocado
1 small granny smith apple
1 tablespoon pine nuts
Marinade sauce
A few drizzles balsamic glaze
A few drizzles extra virgin olive oil (approx 1-2 tablespoons)
A few sprinkles ground pepper

Portabella Marinade: Dice the tomato, onion (measure 1/4 cup) and garlic, then put it in a high speed blender, along with the parsley, olive oil, white wine, soy sauce, vinegar, cherry/pomegranate juice, onion powder, chili powder, allspice and salt.

Blend until the mixture is about completely smooth.

Spoon it out into a bowl. Then, chop the portabella mushrooms in 4-5 long slices. Marinate the mushrooms in the sauce for about an hour (30 minutes minimum).

When almost done marinating, preheat oven to 300°F (148°C).

Pour the mushroom onto a 9×13 inch oven tray, be sure to drizzle remaining sauce on top of the mushrooms.

Bake in the oven for about 20 minutes, then take the tray out, put the mushrooms in a bowl and you should see quite a lot of liquid released from the mushrooms. Drizzle all the excess liquid (including the sauce) out into a bowl for the salad dressing later, then put the mushrooms back into the tray and bake for another 30-35 minutes, until the mushrooms are mostly dry. Remember to take it out every 15 minutes to stir.

Onion: While the portabella mushrooms are baking, slice the red onion into thin rings, and put it in a frying pan. Add the olive oil, salt and ground pepper, and stir well.

Turn the heat on high and cook the onions for a total of 4 minutes, stirring all the time (do not stop stirring even for 10 seconds, as it will burn easily). Once the onions are starting to brown after about 4 minutes, turn the heat off, let the remaining heat keep cooking the onions for a further minute, stirring constantly still.

Assemble: Add the mixed greens in a large bowl, then open the avocado, remove the pit, scoop it out of the skin and slice in small pieces. Add the avocado to the salad bowl, then chop the granny smith apple into thin slices (remove the core and seeds). Add the apple to the bowl as well, then add the pine nuts and fried onions you just made.

Stir it around a little, then transfer the salad onto one or two plates.

Put the marinated portabella steaks on top, then drizzle the marinade sauce from the mushrooms over the salad, then add a few drizzles of balsamic glaze (thickened version of balsamic vinegar) and extra virgin olive oil, sprinkle with ground pepper and serve.

Note: Every oven is different, so I recommend that you keep a close eye on the portabella mushrooms. If it starts to burn on the bottom, then turn it over (if it’s still wet on other sides). Otherwise, take it out. When you remove it from the oven, it should be mostly dry.