Sesame Spinach Salad

Directions

1. Bring a large pot of water to a boil. While it heats up, prepare a large bowl of cold water with a few ice cubes. This will be your ice bath for the spinach.

2. Grind the sesame seeds with a mortar and pestle. Leave some seeds whole for texture.

3. Add the ground sesame seeds to the other sesame sauce ingredients and mix.

4. Once the water is boiling, add the salt. Dunk the spinach stems in first and hold for 15 seconds. Then, submerge the leaves.

5. Blanch until the stems are no longer rigid, about another 15 seconds.

6. Remove the spinach from the pot and plunge it into the iced water to stop the cooking.

7. As soon as the spinach is cool enough to handle, gather it up and squeeze the water out. You may need to do this several times.

8. Mound the spinach on your cutting board and chop into 1-inch sections.

9. In a bowl big enough, mix the cut spinach with garlic and green onion.

10. Add the sesame sauce to the spinach and toss it all together. Serve at room temperature or chilled.