Festive Holiday Salad Recipe
Festive Holiday Salad Recipe. November 19, 2019. Growing up my mom made a delicious salad with canned mandarin oranges and candied almonds that we all loved. There were never any problems finishing our green salad when she made this. After my husband and I began dating in high school even he ate this salad and loved it. He does not like salad at all (although he has learned to eat his greens since then).
Fast forward to when I was raising kids, and I began to pull out this recipe. Eventually, I made a couple of changes such as using fresh mandarin oranges and also adding dried cranberries. So, today I want to share with you my updated version of my childhood favorite that I now call Festive Holiday Salad Recipe. I call it this because it is a wonderful side salad for a holiday party. It is easy to make with colorful and flavorful ingredients such as fresh mandarin oranges, homemade candied almonds and dried cranberries. On top of this is a yummy poppy seed dressing which blends it all together. It is not a heavy salad, and the dressing is not mayonnaise based. It is a perfect light side salad which is why I recommend serving it with holiday meals which tend to be heavier.
Festive Holiday Salad Recipe
Festive Holiday Salad
Print Recipe
Ingredients
Festive Holiday Salad
- 1 head of good lettuce washed and prepared for salad
- 4-5 small mandarin oranges peeled and sectioned
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- candied almonds (see below)
- poppyseed dressing (see below)
Candied Almonds
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- 2 tbsps. sugar
Poppyseed Dressing
- 1/4 cup white vinegar
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 3 tbsps. honey
- 1 tsp. dried minced onion
- 1/8 tsp. salt
- 1/2 tsp. poppyseeds
Instructions
Assemble Salad
- Place prepared lettuce in a bowl.
- Top with mandarins, cranberries, and candied almonds.
- Serve with dressing.
Make Candied Almonds
- Combine sliced almonds and sugar in small sauté pan over low heat.
- Stirring frequently, allow sugar to melt and coat almonds. This may take 10-15 minutes.
- Eventually, sugar will begin to melt and coat almonds. When they are an amber color they are done.
- Remove and put on plate to cool. Break apart when cool.
Make Poppyseed Dressing
- Combine vinegar, honey, salt, poppyseeds, and dried onion in a blender.
- Keeping blender going on high, drizzle oil slowly into blender allowing ingredients to emulsify. It should become opaque and creamy.
- When oil is completely added blend for a few seconds more and then turn off.
- Use dressing as desired. Store in fridge.
- Makes approximately 3/4 cup. Double, triple as desired.
Notes
- Best served immediately, but it will keep for a day or so in fridge.
- If serving for a group I recommend tossing salad with all of dressing first for simplicity, but dressing can be served on the side.
- Of course, customize your salad with other ingredients you like such as apple chunks, pomegranate seeds, etc.!
Have a beautiful day!
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