This salad…is amazing! I had a version of it while on vacation in Indy earlier this month. Artisan lettuce (no iceberg) with fresh strawberries, mandarin oranges, pecans, crumbled/cubed cheese, and grilled chicken. Delicious!
Salads are wonderful for a variety of things…you can get seriously creative with them. Fruits, nuts, cheeses, meats, etc. Nothing is really “wrong” on a salad…with the exception of dressing. Some people go crazy with dressing, and drown the flavor (and health value) out of a perfectly good salad.
I have been experimenting with creating everyday food items from scratch. First up…vinaigrette. Specifically the vinaigrette that accompanied this salad in Indy. A poppyseed vinaigrette. The waitress was nice enough to tell me it had these things included:
-poppyseeds (of course)
-oil
-wine vinegar
-sugar*
-red onion
She followed it up with, “It’s really quite simple to mix up.” So, I did. I did; however, switch up the sugar for honey (as noted by the *). I used two different kinds of oil, olive and canola. The dressing had a pink hue to it, so I figured she probably meant red wine vinegar. Putting this dressing together took me all of five minutes…and it is delicious! Best of all, I know *exactly* what is in it, and I know it is fresh!
What kinds of salads do you enjoy? Have you ever made your own dressing?
-Erica
I love fruit in my salad:)
I used to pick all the fruit out and eat it separately. However, as I’m getting more experimental with different flavors and such, I’m getting better at just eating it all together (the way it was intended, no less). 🙂
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Colline! You’re so sweet! I’ll come and check it out now…
Thanks!
-Erica
The salad looks and sounds delicious, and the dressing is like the drizzled icing on the guilt-free cake! LOL! I’d like to try to make a raspberry vinaigrette. That’s always my go-to dressing at restaurants, but I’m sure they’re loaded with sugar.
I have *lots* of other dressings and condiments on my “from scratch” list to make. I have made BBQ sauce in the recent weeks (that recipe still needs some tweaking), and that was really quite simple as well. Can’t wait to share more with you all!
-Erica