Monday, May 5, 2008

california spring salad

'Tis the season for lighter eating...I love the time of year when having a big salad is satisfying and refreshing. For the longest time my favourite salad was a Taco Salad, then it was Thai Beef Salads...this may be a new favourite. It is ridiculously fast to make and seemed to be enjoyed by many at a dinner party I brought it to. The picture does not do the salad justice... but alas sometimes you just have to put something up!

Ingredients
Salad to Serve Two (as a meal)

4 cups mixed greens and spinach
1 cup sliced strawberries
¼ thinly sliced red onion
½ log crumbled goat cheese

Candied Walnuts/Pecans:

1 cup nuts (I mixed varieties, sometimes even Almonds)
1 Tablespoon butter
1/3 cup brown sugar
1 tsp Cajun seasoning

Maple Poppyseed Dressing:

½ cup white wine vinegar
½ cup maple syrup
2 Tbsp Dijon mustard
Pinch of salt
½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
1/3 cup poppy seeds


Directions:

Salad: combine ingredients - easy!

Candied Nuts:

  1. Toast in a hot frying pan about 2-3 minutes
  2. Add butter, brown sugar and Cajun seasoning (I know random – but the salt and heat is masked, but still adds something)
  3. Allow everything to melt and stir with a wooden spoon.
  4. Before mixture begins to burn poor nuts out onto a silpad to cool, separate with the spoon as much as possible to avoid clumps

Dressing:

  1. Put everything except for the EVOO in a food processor/blender and blend – slowly adding ½ cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  2. Mix until emulsified; add 1/3 cup poppy seeds – blend again.

Combine salad, nuts and dressing, top with grilled chicken if you like meat and enjoy!

5 comments:

Braiye said...

This is just like the California salad served at Milestones! Yay!

Unknown said...

Are you sure about the maple syrup? I never would have thought that syrup was an ingredient in their dressing!

Anonymous said...

Hi Mary,

I truly have no idea if that is what Milestones actually uses. However it is (I think!) close in taste.

Good luck with it. If you make an adaptations or tweak it more to be closer, I would love to hear from you what worked :)

shannon

Style & Grace said...

Great recipe! I LOVE this salad! The only suggestion I'd make was to omit the butter from the nuts as it just makes the spice/sugar mixture not stick to the nuts. I'd just add a tablespoon of water instead. Then you get coated salty/spicy nuts, just like milestones.

Thanks for the great recipe!

Unknown said...

Great recipe still going strong! Thank you!!