Spinach and ricotta stuffed shells
Pasta shells filled with spinach and ricotta beneath a tomato sauce.
About 55 min · 540 kcal · 30 g protein per serving
Vegetarian
Celery, apple and walnut spelt salad with quark
Crunchy celery and apple with toasted walnut over nutty spelt.
By The foodose editorial team. Nutrition calculated from USDA FoodData Central. Checked on paper on 22 September 2026; not yet cooked in a test kitchen or photographed, so the times and yield are estimates. How we develop our recipes
What still needs a real kitchen
- Confirm spelt is tender in 28 to 32 minutes
- Photograph the finished bowl
- Time
- About 52 min
- estimated
- Serves
- 2
- see below
- Energy
- 395 kcal
- per serving
- Protein
- 21 g
- per serving
Ingredients for 2 servings
Check off ingredients as you go.
Contains celery, gluten, milk, tree nuts.
Cooking steps
Simmer the spelt in plenty of salted water for 28 to 32 minutes, until tender with some bite. Drain and leave it to steam dry for a minute.
Toast the walnuts in a dry pan for 3 minutes and chop them roughly.
Slice the celery across the stalk as thinly as you can, and dice the apple, leaving the skin on.
Loosen the quark with the lemon juice until it is the consistency of thick cream.
Fold the celery, apple and walnuts through the warm spelt with the quark, and finish with the parsley.
The useful detail
Slice the celery across the stalk and as thinly as you can manage. Cut into chunks it is stringy and dominates every mouthful; sliced fine it reads as crunch rather than as celery.
Make it work for you
One serving is A large bowl, half the salad. You can switch to a smaller portion in the ingredients above; it is three quarters of this, and it contains correspondingly less energy and protein. It is an option, not a goal.
Greek yoghurt instead of quark
Looser and richer; you may not need the lemon juice to thin it.
Per serving: about the same energy, about the same protein, about 2 g more fat.
Pearl barley instead of spelt
Softer and plumper. A similar cooking time.
Per serving: about 5 kcal more, about 2 g less protein, about 1 g less fat.
Grapes instead of apple
Sweeter and juicier, and they burst rather than crunch.
Per serving: about 15 kcal more, about the same protein, about the same fat.
Estimated nutrition
Per standard serving, calculated from the ingredients above. Nutrition changes with substitutions, brands and how much oil stays in the pan.
A cold lunch where the quark supplies the protein and the dressing at once, in place of the mayonnaise the original uses.
| Energy | 395 kcal |
|---|---|
| Protein | 21 g |
| Fat | 12 g |
| of which saturates | 1 g |
| Carbohydrate | 58 g |
| of which sugars | 15 g |
| Fibre | 10 g |
| Sodium | 460 mg |
Show calculation notes
Each ingredient’s weight is multiplied by its USDA FoodData Central values per 100 g. The whole recipe is added up and divided by 2. Raw weights are used for meat, fish and vegetables; beans and lentils are drained weights. All of the oil is counted as eaten. Added salt is not included; sodium from stock, bread, cheese and tinned food is.
| Ingredient | Weight used | Source | Energy | Protein |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| spelt | 100 g | FDC 169745Spelt, uncookedFarro and spelt are closely related wheats sold under both names; this uses FoodData Central's spelt record. | 338 kcal | 14.6 g |
| walnuts | 30 g | FDC 170187Nuts, walnuts, english | 196 kcal | 4.6 g |
| celery | 200 g | FDC 169988Celery, raw | 28 kcal | 1.4 g |
| apples | 150 g | FDC 171688Apples, raw, with skin (Includes foods for USDA's Food Distribution Program) | 78 kcal | 0.4 g |
| quark | 200 g | FDC 172181Cheese, cottage, nonfat, uncreamed, dry, large or small curdFoodData Central has no quark record. Calculated as dry-curd cottage cheese, the closest fresh unripened curd cheese it holds; the two are close in energy and protein, and your pot's label is the exact figure. | 144 kcal | 20.7 g |
| lemon juice | 15 g | FDC 167747Lemon juice, raw | 3 kcal | 0.1 g |
| parsley | 10 g | FDC 170416Parsley, fresh | 4 kcal | 0.3 g |
| Whole recipe | Divided by 2 | 791 kcal | 41.9 g |
Per serving the energy is rounded to the nearest 5 kcal, grams to the nearest whole gram and sodium to the nearest 10 mg. Calculation method 1.0, September 2026. How the calculation works.
Storage and reheating
- In the fridge
- Cover and refrigerate for up to 2 days. The celery and apple soften and the quark loosens, so it is best on the day it is made.
- Reheating
- Not needed; this is a cold salad.
Checked against US Food and Drug Administration, Refrigerator and Freezer Storage Chart, USDA Food Safety and Inspection Service, Leftovers and Food Safety, FoodSafety.gov, Safe Minimum Internal Temperatures and FoodSafety.gov, Cold Food Storage Chart. UK guidance from the Food Standards Agency is shorter, at two days for most leftovers.
Try another recipe
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A savoury mushroom-lentil filling with a soft potato topping.
About 1 hr · 360 kcal · 20 g protein per serving
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