Easy Peasy, Lemon Squeezy

I saw this in a bookshop, and liked the look of it - so borrowed it from the library! Hugh Fearnley Whittingstall's Light & Easy Cookbook. He stresses this is not a diet book - but in an effort to lose weight and reduce his cholesterols, HFW decided he should cut down on gluten and dairy products.
This book has some 'obvious' recipes, and shows Hugh's penchant for re-naming tweaked recipes [e.g. he adds oats to his smoothies and calls them 'thickies'] but there are a number of interesting meals. I am interested to try out sometime his 'healthy' chocolate mousse, and his 'Chocolate Bean Cake' 

But last week, I was using up the fridge contents, prior to the holiday. I had some baby spinach and new potatoes to deal with. I liked the look of the recipe below - and Hugh said that canned sardines would work as well. They did!

[this isn't a picture of my salad]

Mustardy Mackerel, Spinach and Spuds [serves 4]*
800g new potatoes, cut into bite sized chunks
150g baby leaf spinach
3 medium smoked mackerel fillets **
salt and pepper

For the dressing ***
3 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp cider vinegar
1 tsp smooth mustard
1 tsp grainy mustard
scrap of garlic, crushed

lemon juice

Put the potatoes in a saucepan, cover with water, bring to the boil. Reduce the heat and simmer for 7-10 mins, until just tender.
Put the dressing ingredients into a jar, add a pinch of salt and some pepper and shake to emulsify.
When the potatoes are cooked, drain them well and return to the hot pan.

Fold the spinach through till it wilts – put potatoes and spinach into serving bowl.
Pour over the dressing , flake the fish, gently fold everything together.

Squeeze over some lemon juice

* I halved the recipe 
** I had a can of sardines to hand, so substituted them
*** I also subsituted the oil from the can, wine vinegar, and some IKEA mustard&dill

I would make this one again. I think this would make a good salad for a packed lunch. A slice of bread is useful for wiping round the bowl and mopping up the dressing!