A salad that tastes like a dessert, a healthy one…
Woot Woot, this is my 400th post, and a very healthy salad recipe!
Hope everyone had a wonderful weekend. Mine was just beautiful in all ways. Mother Nature showered us with the most beautiful weather: it was sunny, warm and amazing. Wrapped up the weekend watching Oscars. Two of my favorite actresses Penelope Cruz and Sandra Bullock looked stunning in their beautiful gowns. I was so moved by the humble speech given by Meryl Streep, such an inspiring lady who proved yet again that age doesn’t matter when you have the passion.
On Saturday, we had a potluck party with friends. My friend circle is just amazing as I have friends migrated from different parts of the world and this gives me an opportunity to learn and taste a lot of different cuisines. For the potluck, I made Ground beef pizza (the best homemade pizza) and Donuts (recipe coming soon). Other dishes we had were: baked shrimp, baked potato, spinach salad, chicken wings and potato in dark soy sauce, rice noodles, glutinous red bean rolls etc. Each and every dish was delicious and unique in its own way.
Even being a not so salad person, I loved the spinach salad, it had fruits, nuts and was drizzled with raspberry dressing. It tasted more like a healthy dessert rather than a salad.
Last night, for dinner I tried to recreate the spinach fruit salad that I had for the potluck. Spinach goes well with fruits and when drizzled with a sweet vinaigrette dressing it would taste delicious. Anyone who dislikes salad would definitely fall for this yummy salad and this is a great way to have your kids eat some spinach.
For the salad dressing, I made an easy red wine vinaigrette. Btw, vinaigrette is a mixture of olive oil and vinegar.
Tips for making the perfect vinaigrette dressing:
- Oil:Vinegar ratio must be 3:1, if you mix according to this ratio you are on the right track.
- You can use extra virgin olive oil, vegetable oil or salad oil.
- Vinegars that can be used: white wine vinegar, red wine vinegar, rice vinegar, balsamic vinegar, cider vinegar etc, depending upon what kind you are using the flavor will change. Do not use regular white vinegar.
- You can add garlic, soy sauce, honey, any dried herbs, shallots, ground pepper, white pepper, mustard, paprika and other spices to your vinaigrette.
- Citrus juices like lemon, lime and orange juice can be added to enhance the vinegar.
- Mixing: You could whisk the ingredients together in a glass bowl or shake them in a glass jar or mix it in a blender
Spinach Fruit Salad
Serves: 4 people
Ingredients
For making Vinaigrette
- Extra virgin olive oil- 6 tbsp
- Red wine vinegar- 3 tbsp
- Honey- 1 1/2 tbsp
- Ground pepper- 1/8 tsp
- Ground cinnamon- 2 pinches
For Salad
- Fresh Spinach
- Strawberries, ripe- diced
- Mandarin oranges, canned- 1 can (drain the water or sugar syrup)
- Nuts, any kind- if needed
Instruction
- In a glass bowl, whisk together all the ingredients mentioned for making the vinaigrette, let it rest for an hour.
- In a salad bowl, combine spinach, strawberries and mandarin oranges.
- Just before serving, drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve.
- Leftover salad and dressing can be refrigerated
Tips:
- If you don’t have mandarin oranges, you could replace with ripe peaches.
- You could add either white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar instead of red wine vinegar.
- Balsamic vinegar will impart an intense flavor, so for mild sweet flavors use red wine or cider vinegar.
- Extra virgin olive oil- 6 tbsp
- Red wine vinegar- 3 tbsp
- Honey- 1½ tbsp
- Ground pepper- ⅛ tsp
- Ground cinnamon- 2 pinches
- Fresh Spinach
- Strawberries, ripe- diced
- Mandarin oranges, canned- 1 can (drain the water or sugar syrup)
- Nuts, any kind- if needed
- In a glass bowl, whisk together all the ingredients mentioned for making the vinaigrette, let it rest for an hour.
- In a salad bowl, combine spinach, strawberries and mandarin oranges.
- Just before serving, drizzle with the vinaigrette and serve.
- Leftover salad and dressing can be refrigerated
You could add either white wine vinegar, cider vinegar, balsamic vinegar, rice vinegar instead of red wine vinegar.
Balsamic vinegar will impart an intense flavor, so for mild sweet flavors use red wine or cider vinegar.
