Not Popeye's Spinach

I've recently been converted to spinach.

As I am trying to get more vegetables into my day, I have found that spinach is a really easy way to sneak in a serving at every meal.

I tasted this a Spinach Salad with Roasted Carrots at a church activity, and had to figure out a way to add it to our salad rotation. Thank goodness for my resident salad dressing extraordinaire! She created the perfect dressing for our salad.

sorry, one of these days my pictures will be worthy of the yummy food they represent

Spinach Salad with Roasted Carrots & Israeli Cous-Cous

Fresh Baby Spinach
a Bunch of large carrots (don't use the baby carrots for this dish)
1/4 c. sunflower oil
1 shallot
small bunch of fresh parsley
zest from one lemon
1/2- 1 cup Israeli Cous-Cous (depending on how much salad you are making)
1/4 c. pine nuts, roasted

Cook the cous-cous according to box directions.
Roast the pine nuts if needed.
Meanwhile, peel the carrots & wash. Cut them at an angle, in large bite size pieces. Toss carrots  in Sunflower oil (you can substitute olive oil if that is what you have). Finely mince the shallot and the parsley and sprinkle over carrots. Add the lemon zest. Spread on a cookie sheet covered in parchment paper. Bake at 375 for 10-12 minutes; to desired tenderness. I like to broil mine for just a few minutes to give them a bit of darkened edges.

On a serving platter, lay the spinach in a generous pile. Top with roasted carrots, cous-cous and pine nuts. Toss with any light salad dressing you like. We use this Lemon Dressing- which is absolutely perfect.

Light Lemon Salad Dressing

6 TBSP. Lemon olive oil
4 TBSP. white champagne vinegar
juice from 1/2 orange
1tsp. minced shallot
pinch of sea salt

This was such a light dressing, but complimented the salad absolutely perfectly.

Enjoy this one over and over again.

*** NOTE: I had a hard time finding Israeli Cous-Cous in Utah when I wanted to make this salad for my family. If you can't find it, use Orzo pasta. It'd be just as good.