By Martin Malinowski, head chef at St Vincent, Newcastle

Since reopening earlier this year, Quayside restaurant St Vincent has proved popular with diners, either for a pre-theatre dinner before visiting neighbouring Live Theatre, or simply for a delicious meal.

With Spring very firmly here, there is no better dish than a fresh and nourishing asparagus and spring vegetable salad, topped with feta cheese.

St Vincent’s head chef, Martin Malinowski, has shared his recipe for a delicious raw vegetable salad, exclusively with Portfolio North.

Serves 4

This is a wonderful fresh raw vegetable salad to enjoy on a hot summers day while dining al fresco. It would work well as a sharing side dish with some simply grilled meats off the BBQ, or even in a picnic box, as the raw vegetables are quite robust, even after being dressed.

If you do not own a mandolin, then a very sharp knife will be fine for slicing the kohl rabi and fennel but mind your fingers.

For the dressing

150ml extra virgin olive oil

30mls good quality white wine or chardonnay vinegar

Squeeze of lemon juice

Salt and freshly ground black pepper 

For the salad

100g good quality pesto

8 spears of asparagus, woody base removed and then shaved using a vegetable peeler

1 Kohl rabi, peeled halved and thinly sliced on a mandolin

Half a head of fennel, halved and thinly sliced on a mandolin

150g Feta cheese

1 dessert spoon of poppy seeds

1 dessert spoon of sunflower seeds

A few leaves of watercress

Sea salt and freshly ground pepper

Plunge the shaved fennel, watercress, and asparagus into iced water for 30 minutes. Remove and pat as dry as possible.

Transfer into a large bowl and season with salt and pepper.

Add the pesto and add enough dressing to taste and coat all the vegetables.

Add half of the poppy seeds, sunflower seeds, and feta, toss gently, and then finally add the watercress leaves for a gentle final mix.

Transfer to 4 plates and finish with a crumbling of the remaining feta and a sprinkling of the remaining seeds.