The Best Salad Ever

A green salad topped with blue cheese, chicken, strawberries, and candied pecans.

I know this is a very steep claim, but in my opinion this is the best salad ever.  My husband and I used to get a salad similar to this when ever we went to Whole Foods and we would immediately gobble it up.  When I found my self with both blue cheese and fresh strawberries in my refrigerator I had to recreate this amazing salad.  It has been quite a while since I have had the Whole Foods version of this salad but mine did not disappoint.  I would even say it was much better.  I highly recommend this salad.  It is flavorful and very filling.

The Best Salad Ever

Ingredients:

lettuce or spinach
green onions, sliced
shredded cooked chicken (great use for leftover rotisserie chicken)
strawberries, sliced
blue cheese
candied pecans
balsamic vinaigrette

Toss the lettuce in the vinaigrette until well coated (I usually use 2-3 hand fulls of lettuce per person and the vinaigrette is 3 parts oil to 1 part vinegar, I just eye ball it).

Place the dressed lettuce on a plate or shallow bowl and sprinkle on the green onions, as much as you like I use about 1/4 cup (you could use red onion slices too I just find green onions to be milder and still impart an onion flavor).

Next add the pecans, I use about a hand full but it's all  up to personal tastes, and some chicken (however much you like).

Lastly top with straw berries and blue cheese (about 1/4 cup of each).

You could just add all of the ingredients together and toss in the vinaigrette, this would save some time, but usually all the toppings fall to the bottom of the bowl making it difficult to get proper amounts of everything in each serving (I'm just picky so I will do it my way...it's the right way after all).

Enjoy.

Linked to:  Retro repin

Follow Joy Bee's board Joybee Whats for Dinner blog posts on Pinterest.

Read more ...

Mandarin Orange Salad

A fresh and satisfying salad with lettuce, green onions, pecans, and mandarin oranges in a balsamic vinaigrette. 

 

I picked up a can of mandarin oranges at the store a few weeks ago. I have never used them before and thought I would try something different. Tonight I finally decided on a good way to use them; in a salad. I usually like to add dried cranberries to my salads, for that extra bit of color and a bit of sweetness, so I replaced them with the oranges. Here's what I did.  For 2 salads:


Ingredients:

1 can mandarin oranges
4 cups lettuce
1/2 cup pecans
1/3 cup green onions (sliced)

Vinaigrette:

3 parts oil
1 part vinegar
1 part Dijon mustard

First prepare vinaigrette in the bottom of a big salad bowl.  I use olive oil, and balsamic vinegar, but any vinegar and oil combination would work.  Exact measurements are not important, I just eyeball it, just try for the 3 to 1 ratio.  Stir all vinaigrette ingredients vigorously to emulsify them, then toss in lettuce.

I'm picky about how I make my salads, I only toss the lettuce in the dressing.  I've tried tossing everything together, but I don't like that everything else falls to the bottom and it's hard to get the right amount of toppings with each bite.  So I only toss the lettuce in the vinaigrette to flavor it, then separate the dressed lettuce into bowls and top with everything else.  This not only looks better, but it also ensures that each salad has the right amount of toppings.

I like green onions because the flavor is usually not as strong, but you can also use thinly sliced red onion.  I also like pecans, and I keep them around, but you could also use almonds. You could also toast the pecans, or any nut, to make them crunchier and enhance the flavor, but it is not necessary.  I even saw a recipe that used sugared pecans, but I think that would make the salad too sweet because the canned oranges add quite a bit of sweetness. The oranges I used were packed in light syrup, I drained and rinsed them before adding to the salad.  You could also use clementine segments and I think it would be very good.

This easy and versatile salad tastes great and makes a wonderful start to any meal, or even a light meal on it's own. I ate it as a starter and them had a small sloppy joe (left over from earlier) to finish my meal.  I think this salad would be great during dark and dreary winter days (for those of you on the mainland who have 4 seasons), citrus always seems to brighten up winter days.  Wintertime isn't the only time you can appreciate this salad, it fresh and refreshing anytime, anywhere, and  for anyone (even for me in Honolulu).  Enjoy.

TC67PHDQDVEE

Read more ...