Black And Bleu Salad
From keni 13 years ago
- 20 min to make
- Serves 4
Okay, so the salad isn't actually black OR blue, but the bite of bleu cheese and a creamy blackberry vinaigrette are added to a bed of fresh baby spinach dotted with green onions and candied pecans, making this salad a "knockout"! Read more Grilled chicken or salmon would be great additions to this one, too. See less
Ingredients
for the candied pecans
- 1 cup pecan pieces shopping list
- 1/4 cup brown sugar shopping list
- 2T butter shopping list
- 2t balsamic vinegar shopping list
- 1T water shopping list
For the Blackberry Vinaigrette
- 1/2 cup fresh blackberries shopping list
- 1/4 cup orange juice shopping list
- 3T honey shopping list
- 2-3t Dijon mustard shopping list
- 1/2t cayenne shopping list
- 1/2t celery powder(optional) shopping list
- 1T minced shallot or sweet onion OR 2t dry minced onion shopping list
- juice from 1/2 lime shopping list
- about 1/2 cup red wine or balsamic vinegar(I used red wine with garlic) shopping list
- 1 cup quality salad olive oil shopping list
- sea salt and fresh ground black pepper shopping list
For the salad
- about 1 pound fresh baby spinach, washed and patted dry shopping list
- 2-3 green onions, chopped shopping list
- 4oz crumbled blue cheese(I use gorgonzola, but you can use any, and can even substitute goat cheese crumbles for a milder flavor) shopping list
How to make it
To candy pecans
- Melt butter in cast iron pan
- Add sugar and stir until dissolved
- Add pecans and toss to coat See Photo
- finally add balsamic and water and stir to combine and thoroughly coat all the pecans
- Place pan in 350 oven and cook about 5 minutes, toss pan to turn pecans and cook another 2-3 more until pecans are dark brown and sugar has caramelized See Photo
- Remove nuts to waxed paper and let cool, breaking up once in a while to make sure they don't stick
Vinaigrette
- Place blackberries, shallot or onion, orange juice and honey in small heavy sauce pan. See Photo
- Cook until berries and onion begins to soften, about 5 minutes See Photo
- Pour into blender or food processor and add remaining ingredients, except for oil and pulse until smooth and well combined. Taste for seasonings.
- Slowly add oil while pulsing to emulsify.
To serve
- Arrange bed of spinach onto serving plate
- Top with green onion and blue cheese
- Dress with light drizzle of vinaigrette and top with a handful of candied pecans.
The Rating
Reviewed by 1 people-
Looks like you went a little nuts with a French person in a veggie patch on your holiday. Bloody great salad change-up. You're on the menue for Sunday. RJ
elgourmand
in Apia loved it
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" It was excellent "