The Salad – My personal all-time favourite!


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About ‘the salad’

Warning – this is a long-winded post about my love for a salad. Remember, you can always click on the “Jump to Recipe” button at the top below the title 🙂

I’ve had these photos and draft post sitting here for awhile now. I would say about a month and half.

I made ‘the salad’ very soon after I launched my blog.

It’s nothing over-the-top or out of the ordinary. Not a new trend or crazy vegetable that I read about on Instagram. It’s just ‘the salad’.

But it’s NOT!! It’s my new FAVOURITE salad. I’m pretty sure I said to hubby Timthe first time I made it, that it was ‘my favourite salad ever’!!

The day that I made this salad for myself was the same day I cooked and photographed Spinach & Strawberry Salad with Honey Mustard Chicken.

Hubby Tim volunteered to eat the one I had photographed. I had a taste and it is delicious but I just fancied something different after working on it for the better part of the morning.

A Salad Is Born!

I had been thinking of creating a chopped salad recipe, then I got bogged down in the gazillion variations you could create and it just sat on the back burner and simmered 🙂

I had originally thought I would either make a lemony-basil dressing with a chopped salad but then decided to make a balsamic type dressing, thinking it might be a good recipe once fall comes around. (yep, once you work at Michaels you’re alway a season or two ahead).

I laid everything out on the plate and kept piling on the ingredients. I made the Balsamic dressing and dipped my finger in – it was bang on. Really good.

THEN, I remembered seeing recipes over the years where Balsamic and poppyseed dressings were mixed together.

the salad on pgreen plate with fork and dried cranberries, pumpkins seeds scattered around the plate.

So, I mixed the poppyseed dressing from the Spinach & Strawberry Salad with a one-to-one ratio with the new Balsamic Dressing that I had just made and it seemed to taste pretty darned good with the finger test. Turns out it’s my new favourite and it’s SO easy to make!!

I have learned the hard way – always take pictures

I have made upwards of 15 recipes that were being tested without photos and turned out to be perfect. AAARGH. So, I learned my lesson and snapped a few quick pictures of ‘the salad’ on the plate before I ate it. I wish I had taken process photos, and may insert them at some point but do you really need to see all the veggies chopped and looking pretty on a plate right now to execute this recipe? nope.

I also learned the hard way that I need to write everything down so that I can duplicate it for the final recipe. I jotted down quick notes with ingredients and then I devoured ‘the salad’. Or, I should say I savoured EVERY SINGLE BITE. It is by far my favourite salad ever.

The textures of the crunchy peppers, chewy dried cranberries, salty feta cheese. I recommend toasting the pecans at 350F for five to seven minutes but they are delicious right out of the package as well.

The ingredients

Basic ingredients – romaine lettuce is at the heart of the salad but you could easily substitute mesclun, leafy, iceberg – you get it 🙂

Change up the ingredients and add whatever your heart desires. Blueberries, sliced strawberries……..

Pine nuts, hazelnuts, cashew nuts (anyone get the Best In Show movie reference)? One of the funniest movies ever!

Make the dressings separate, THEN mix them together. One-to-one. So, 1 cup of poppyseed with 1 cup of balsamic or whatever portion you need.

Thank you for reading and allowing me to share my love of ‘the salad’ with you. When you make this recipe, please let me know in the comments below and post a picture and tag me on Instagram!

Try with: Top with my candied pecans recipe for an amazing sweet crunch texture and flavor on this salad.

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The Salad


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5 from 2 reviews

  • Author: Sandra Flegg
  • Total Time: 15 minutes
  • Yield: 12 cups

Description

My favourite salad of all time. Tangy dressing, crunchy veggies and nuts and oh so many good things going for it. It’s calling your name.


Ingredients

Salad

8 cups romaine lettuce, torn or chopped

1 yellow pepper, chopped into 1/4” pieces

1/2 orange peppers, chopped into 1/4” pieces

1/2 red onion, sliced

1 cup feta cheese, crumbled

1 cup chopped toasted pecans

1/2 cup craisins

1/4 cup pepitas (pumpkin seeds

Balsamic Dressing

1/4 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 cup olive oil

2 tbsp. maple syrup

1 tsp. honey dijon mustard (substitute regular dijon)

Pinch salt & pepper

Poppyseed Dressing

1/4 cup white wine vinegar

3 tbsp. honey

1 tbsp. plus 1 tsp. poppyseeds

1/2 tsp. salt

1/2 tsp. dry mustard

1/3 cup mayonnaise

1/2 tsp. lemon zest

1 tbsp. finely grated sweet onion

1 tsp. dijon mustard

1 tbsp. lemon juice

1/2 cup olive oil


Instructions

Place all salad ingredients into a large bowl and toss well to mix. 

Balsamic Dressing

Combine all ingredients into a glass jar and shake to mix. 

Poppyseed Dressing

In a medium-sized mixing bowl, whisk all ingredients together. Store in glass jar in refrigerator. 

Combine one 1 cup of balsamic dressing with 1 cup of poppyseed dressing. Whisk until combined. 

Drizzle over salad. Serve with additional side dish of dressing to top up the salad as desired. 

Combine poppyseed and balsamic together and mix 1:1 ratio.

This is enough dressing for several salads. 

Notes

The nutritional information is calculated using 1/2 cup of balsamic and 1/2 cup of poppyseed dressing for the entire salad. This is due to the fact that the dressing recipe will make more than the amount needed. 

  • Prep Time: 15 minutes
  • Category: Salads
  • Method: No Bake
  • Cuisine: American

Nutrition

  • Serving Size:
  • Calories: 253
  • Sugar: 16.2 g
  • Sodium: 443.1 mg
  • Fat: 15.7 g
  • Saturated Fat: 5.6 g
  • Trans Fat: 0 g
  • Carbohydrates: 23.7 g
  • Fiber: 3 g
  • Protein: 7.2 g
  • Cholesterol: 25.6 mg

5 Comments

  1. First time seeing your blog. Love the ingredients for your salad recipes. I want to try all of them. I’ll post comments after I try each one. Thanks for posting. We love a good salad.
    Marcia Bogan.

  2. So yummy! I added some rotisserie chicken to bump up the protein. Can’t wait to make this again for friends!!!






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