I know it’s not Salad Monday but last Monday I shared a carbo-cheese loaded recipe that just couldn’t wait and now I’m craving salad so bad, I can’t hold off til tomorrow. I know. No self control. You know I adore salads. (hence the need for a Salad Monday.) And I definitely have my go-to favorites (hello my beloved strawberry poppyseed spinach salad) but I’ve been trying to diversify lately, as you may have noticed with that recent mandarin pasta spinach salad with addictive teriyaki dressing that changed my life forever. This salad I’m sharing today is a brand spanking new one. One I invented last week just because I was dying for salad and something a little out of the ordinary. I swapped out the classic dried cranberries for dried cherries instead – so tart and flavorful!! I also candied the pecans which I, for some reason, had forgotten only takes about 3 minutes and adds so much goodness to a salad. And instead of honey crisp or fuji – my red apple variety of choice for salads – I went with a gorgeous green. Soooo glad I did. What I really love though is that all of that tangy tartness from the green apples and the dried cherries gets perfectly balanced out with this amazing homemade sweet balsamic dressing. The flavor combination is absolutely de-lish. The whole thing comes together in probably 10 minutes and if you wanted to get real crazy, you could always add chicken to turn this into a main course salad! Just sayin. A huge thanks to Diamond of California Nuts for sponsoring this awesome salad recipe!
