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Apple Pecan and Craisins Salad

A wonderful salad recipe featuring apples, candied pecans and Craisins
Prep Time10 minutes
Total Time10 minutes
Course: Salad
Cuisine: American
Servings: 4

Ingredients

  • 12 - 16 ounces salad greens
  • ½ cup craisins substitute dried cranberries or dried cherries
  • ½ cup candied pecans We get them at Trader Joe's, but they are now available in most supermarkets. If you can't find them, substitute pecan halves.
  • 2 apples cored and thinly sliced

For the Dressing

  • 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
  • 1 tablespoon maple syrup use the real thing if you have it
  • 1 teaspoon apple cider vinegar
  • Salt and freshly ground pepper to taste
  • ¼ cup olive oil Don't use extra virgin olive unless you have to. I find it overpowers the flavor of the greens

Instructions

  • I like to make my salad dressings in a small jar, but a coffee cup or glass measuring cup works well, too. Combine the mustard, maple syrup, and vinegar in a small container. Use a fork to combine well. If I'm working with a jar with a lid, I'll combine the ingredients by putting the lid on the jar and giving it a shake.
  • Adding the oil. You want to emulsify the ingredients. Oil and vinegar do not naturally combine, but the mustard is an emulsifier to help them play nice together. Vigorous stirring or shaking helps, too, so I like to slowly add (pour) the olive oil into the jar with one hand and stir hard with a fork in the other hand.
  • Taste and season with salt and pepper.

Prepare the Salad

  • In your favorite salad bowl (we like our old wooden bowls that we've had for years), add the greens.
  • At this point, I like to add the dressing a little at a time until I have the perfect combination of greens and salad dressing. You never want to pour all the dressing on the salad, so the greens are swimming. My wife and I call this over-dressing "Laura the Salad" and say to each other as we are about to add the dressing, "Don't Laura the Salad!"
  • Add the craisins, pecans, and apples when you reach the optimum balance between greens and vinaigrette. We don't add everything at first and stir to combine because we find that the other ingredients go straight to the bottom of the bowl. If you add these other ingredients after you've combined the greens and the vinaigrette, you can GENTLY give the salad a stir and keep all the fun stuff on top.
  • Bring the bowl to the table to serve or plate the salad on individual plates and serve.