love of local in Utah
Spring Salads
Over the past couple of weeks I made two pretty yummy salads, both are must trys. And both are not my recipes so let me just give these people the credit:
Strawberry Salad with Strawberry Poppy Seed Dressing
by Simple Bites (I write for their sister site Simple Kids)
There are a billion strawberry/spinach salad recipes out there huh? The reason I liked this one quite a bit more because the poppy seed dressing is homemade. It is not complex, you can do it! I love how there are blended up strawberries IN the dressing, how the dry mustard gave it depth and the red wine vinegar gave it a good tang. The one adaption that I made to the recipe was I doubled the amount of greens and I did half spinach and half spring greens mix.
Pear, Sharp Cheddar & Avocado Salad
found on All Recipes but I made a lot of adaptions so I will just put the recipe below like I made it.
Ingredients
- 1 head leaf lettuce and a couple handfuls of spinach
- 3 pears – peeled, cored and chopped
- 6 ounces of sharp cheddar cheese, cubed
- 1 avocado – peeled, pitted, and diced
- 1/2 cup thinly sliced green onions
- 1/4 cup white sugar
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons white sugar
- 1 1/2 teaspoons prepared mustard
- 1 clove garlic, chopped
- 1/2 teaspoon salt
- fresh ground black pepper to taste
Directions
- In a skillet over medium heat, stir 1/4 cup of sugar together with the pecans. Continue stirring gently until sugar has melted and caramelized the pecans. Carefully transfer nuts onto waxed paper. Allow to cool, and break into pieces.
- For the dressing, blend oil, vinegar, 1 1/2 teaspoons sugar, mustard, chopped garlic, salt, and pepper.
- In a large serving bowl, layer lettuce, spinach, pears, cheddar cheese, avocado, and green onions. Pour dressing over salad, sprinkle with pecans, and serve.
