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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.
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
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
