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Summer salad is one of my favorite dishes, and I am sure it will be one of yours too.  There’s nothing better than enjoying fresh veggies with your favorite protein.

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Salads all Summer Long

Summer is really the time to enjoy salads of all sorts.  We especially love to grill romaine lettuce and top it with blue cheese and a vinaigrette dressing.  Or, we may change it up and have a pasta or potato salad.  But lettuce based salads are our favorite.  But, as anyone can tell you having the same salads over and over can be a bit boring.  That’s where this Summer Salad really shines.

Get Your Greens Ready

I start by cutting my lettuce up into bite-sized pieces, and then I immerse them into cool water to wash away all the dirt.  I use a salad spinner to get the greens good and clean.  Then, spin it to get the lettuce to dry.  While the lettuce is drying, I chop up the bacon and fry it in a skillet.  I have a plate covered with a couple of paper towels, and once the bacon is done, I place it on the paper towels to absorb the grease. In this particular series of photos, I substituted chopped ham, which I fried in the skillet.

Toast the Pecans

At this point, I prepare my pecans by chopping and toasting them in a skillet while drizzling about 1 tablespoon of honey over them to create the candied pecans.  I typically put them in the refrigerator to cool them down.

Cleaning and slicing the apple is pretty easy, as is measuring out my dried cranberries.  I used to buy my cranberries and pecans at the grocery store in a bag, but that ended up being too wasteful.  Now I head to the bulk aisle of my local Sprouts market to grab just the amount I need, fresher and much more economical.

Not Your Ordinary Salad

Dried cranberries, candied pecans, and green apples add a lot of flavor and hardiness to this salad.  Add to that either Gorgonzola or Blue Cheese crumbles, bacon, and chopped chicken breast and you have a filling and satisfying, yet light summer meal.   You will find that this is also a great salad to take to summer barbecues.

Enjoy,

Sherri

Summer Salad

A unique salad to add to your summer salad routine, this salad will provide a nice change of pace from your typical summer salads.

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Prep Time 15 minutes mins

Total Time 15 minutes mins

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Servings 4 people

Ingredients

  

• 1 head Romaine Lettuce cleaned and chopped
• 4 slices Bacon cooked and crumbled
• 4 to 6 oz Blue or Gorgonzola Cheese crumbled
• 1/2 cup Dried Cranberries
• 1 Green or Granny Smith Apple sliced and chopped
• 1/2 cup Candied Pecans chopped
• 1 Chicken Breast Grilled and chopped
• Blue Cheese Vinaigrette Dressing to taste

Instructions

 

• Mix together all ingredients and toss with dressing of your choice.

Notes

We candy our own pecans by buying them bulk (just a 1/2 cup) and toasting them in a skillet on the stove – using about 1 tablespoon of honey to candy them. Let them cool until ready to use. Also, Marie Calendars Blue Cheese Vinaigrette Dressing is a favorite of ours for this salad.

Keyword salad