Holiday Green Salad

 

I found this salad recipe years ago in a Taste of Home magazine.  It was called Merry Berry Salad and is perfectly colored for a Christmas dinner.  However, I was thinking that if you threw a bag of fresh cranberries in the freezer right now, this would make a lovely addition to a Valentine's dinner, too.  After all, it is red.  And it is kind of fancy...sort of...for a tossed salad.  Let me just tell you the dressing is TO DIE FOR.  Because the recipe always makes way more dressing than salad, and because I never remember to write that on the recipe, I am thinking of trying it as a marinade for some chicken.

Holiday Green Salad:  (adapted from Taste of Home)
for the salad:
1 head red leaf lettuce
1 head green leaf lettuce
1 red apple, chopped
1 green apple, chopped
1/2 cup dried cranberries
1 cup grated Parmesan, Romano or Asiago cheese
1/2 cup pecans, roughly chopped
for the dressing:
1 cup fresh cranberries
1/3 cup honey
1/2 cup balsamic vinegar
1/4 cup frozen juice concentrate (any kind as long as it's 100% juice)
1 tsp kosher salt
1/2 tsp freshly ground pepper
1 tsp ground mustard
1 tsp onion powder
1 cup vegetable oil
Place all of the dressing ingredients except the oil in a blender and pulse until smooth.  Turn on the blender and open the hole in the lid.  Slowly pour the oil into the blender in a thin stream until all of it is incorporated.  Toss the salad ingredients in a large bowl.  Serve with the dressing on the side. Tweet