This recipe for Special Spinach Salad is quickly becoming our go-to for an easy summer dinner. I first discovered it a few Thanksgivings ago when my sister-in-law whipped it up quickly before the big meal. Even though it was competing with LOTS of other foods, I kept coming back to the salad because it was just that good.
There are different versions of this salad all over the internet, but the one my sister-in-law scribbled down for me is the one with a homemade (yet easy) dressing. (Find those ingredients at the top of the ingredient list below.)
As for what goes into the salad itself, you can really change it up as much as you like. But here’s the ingredient list featured in the recipe found on the Food.com website:
Special Spinach Salad
Ingredient list:
1⁄3 cup olive oil
3 tablespoons sugar
2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons sour cream
Half a teaspoon of dry mustard
1 (6-ounce) package spinach (remove long stems)
1⁄2 cup chopped walnuts, toasted
1⁄2 cup dried cranberries
Other optional ingredients I like to add:
Red onion (sliced thin)
Boiled and sliced egg
Strawberries or thin apple slices
Candied pecans mixed with cranberries (optional)
Notes:
I found a bag of candied pecans that is already mixed with dried cranberries at the Walmart Supercenter, which made the salad prep quicker. Also, toasting the walnuts is optional. You could use a different type of nut like almonds if you like those better. Find the crumbled goat cheese in the deli area of the store. It’s a personal preference, but I always take the stems off the spinach leaves before I add them to the bowl. I don’t want to be stabbed in the back of the throat by a stem while I’m trying to eat a salad, but maybe I’m just picky.
Use a shaker jar to mix the olive oil, sugar, white wine vinegar, sour cream and dry mustard together. If your shaker jar has a little spout like mine does, you could just use that to drizzle each plate of salad with dressing. Or let each member of the family add as much or as little as they like on their individual plates. You can also add any protein to the salad, if you like, but I’ve found that when I add the nuts, cranberries, onions, boiled egg, and goat cheese, the salad feels like a meal in itself but never makes us feel overly full, which is a nice perk, especially in the summer.
Click HERE for a printer-friendly version of the recipe on Food.com.
Enjoy!
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