Remember when it was super nice out and you could walk outside, pick spinach from your garden and make a salad of it? Yeah, me neither. It may have only been two months ago that I could do that, but I miss it dearly. Being the beginning of December is making me want nice fresh salads. Since I haven’t gone to the market to buy myself some spinach I am going to have to make a reeeeeaaaallllly nice dressing to make up for the spinach I am using.
Thank god for Maple Syrup. It sure makes a mean salad dressing. (Mean in a good way, not in the ‘I’m going to beat you up for your lunch money, kind of way.’)
Ingredients:
Salad
1 Bowl of spinach
2 mandarin Oranges (or one can if it’s not December and you’re feeling kind of trashy)
¼ – 1/2 cup of Swiss cheese
1/4 – ½ cup of toasted almonds
¼ cup of sliced red onions
Dressing
2 tblspns olive oil
¼ cup of Dark Maple syrup
¼ cup of Mandarin Orange Juice (from the canned oranges or squeeze a fresh one)
3-4 tbsp of Raspberry Vinegar (or red wine vinegar)
1 clove Garlic or powder 1 tsp.
Other fresh herbs that can be added depending on taste: (There are crazies out there who don’t like cilantro.) Cilantro, pepper corns crushed, rosemary, or oregano
Or you cheat like me and use a tablespoon or two of Epicure Pink peppercorn dressing mix
Method:
Combine everything in bowl
But if you really have to know. Combine salad ingredients in a bowl, set it aside.
Combine dressing ingredients in a blender and pulse it then pour over salad ingredients.
Or
Combine dressing ingredients in a bowl, mix it with a fork or a whisk and then pour over salad ingredients.
good stuff maple 