Apple, Pecan, and Blue Cheese Salad - Healthy AND Delicious
Right off that bat I will let you know, I am not really a fan of salads. Well, at least salads that are actually healthy. Give me a “Pittsburgh” salad with french fries, fried chicken and ranch dressing and I will eat that all day, but that doesn’t really qualify now does it.
You have to think about what makes a lot of salads boring; what do they lack? Most of the time, texture plays a huge role here. You need a little crunch, some softness, something creamy maybe, etc. It also comes down to the greens. Do you want some bitterness from arugula or radicchio? Do you prefer a crunchy green like cabbage or romaine? The options go on and on but you see what I am getting at.
The same rules apply when it comes to dressing. First, you should try to make your own if possible because store dressing are typically the secret salad killer; i.e. LOADED with sugar. You can have way more control over that if you assemble your own. You want to include a few components to make a really great and interesting dressing. Fat. This will come in the form of the oil you use - olive oil, avocado or canola oil, flaxseed or hemp oil, etc. The second component is acidity. You have a few options here - lemon juice, lime juice, apple cider vinegar, sherry vinegar, white wine vinegar, etc. The last component is seasoning, and this is where the fun comes in. Seasonings can be anything like Dijon mustard, salt and pepper, chopped fresh herbs, dried herbs, minced shallot or grated garlic, etc. If you include something from each of those categories, it’s bound to be delicious!
For this Apple, Pecan and Blue Cheese salad, I tried to hit on as many sweet, savory, crunchy and creamy notes as I could. I went with some crunch and bitterness in the greens, using endive, arugula and romaine. I also used a fair amount of flat leaf parsley, treating it as another green instead of a herb.
If you needed to substitute this base, you could consider using kale, chard, spinach, radicchio, chervil, chives or cilantro.
The toppings I chose were chopped pecans, sliced honey crisp apple, creamy crumbled blue cheese, and spring onions. You could easily substitute in any other nut - walnuts, pine nuts, cashews or pistachios. The salad would also be delicious with sliced pear, dates, dried prunes or strawberries. And for the cheese, feta would be a great alternative as well as chèvre or an aged cheddar.
And finally we arrive at the dressing. The general ratio to follow when making a dressing is 3 parts fat to 1 part acidity. For example, depending on the size salad you need to dress, you would mix 3 tablespoons of extra virgin olive oil, to 1 tablespoon of lemon juice. That is a good guide to start with, but the end result will ultimately depend on your taste preferences. Start by adding less of everything, taste and adjust.
For this dressing, I made a pretty large batch because the salad was so good, I kept making it for about 5 days straight. Here are the ingredients and measurements I used, again, keeping in mind I had a fair amount left over for the next couple days.
1/2 cup Extra Virgin Olive Oil (a really good olive oil branch to check out - https://www.liokareas.com/ )
1/8 cup fresh lemon juice
1/8 cup white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons of peach balsamic vinaigrette (the branch I use is https://www.theolivetap.com/)
1 medium size diced shallot
1 large glove of garlic, grated
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon salt
1/2 teaspoon black pepper
This makes for an excellent dressing that was amazing on this salad, but is very versatile and would go with probably any salad you like. As I mentioned above, we have fat, acid, and seasonings which is why this dressing makes for such a great complement to the salad.
This salad was a side for pasta, I added chicken to it the next day, and shrimp would have been delicious with it as well. Eating salads doesn’t have to be boring and they can be filling! (a mantra I try to tell myself more) Give this one a go and let me know if you used the same ingredients or how you swapped things out!