Sunday, October 12, 2008

Spinach Salad with Spiced Pecans

This week was my MIL's birthday, so in lieu of buying her a present like a normal person, I offered to make her lunch. We had this spinach salad with our lunch that everyone seemed to like.
The salad itself consists of a bag of baby spinach, 2 apples chopped (I used gala) and tossed with a tablespoon of lemon juice, and a cup of chopped celery.
The dressing is a combination of 1/4 cup apple juice, 2 tablespoons cider vinegar, 2 tablespoons brown sugar , 2 tablespoons dijon mustard, 3/4 cups canola oil, and 2 tablespoons poppyseeds.
When you combine everything together, you'll have leftover dressing.
For the nuts, melt 2 tablespoons butter in a large skillet. Add 2 tablespoons of sugar, 1 teaspoon seasoned salt, 1/2 teaspoon, garlic salt, 1/8 teaspoons cayenne pepper.
Stir over medium heat about 2 minutes.
Add 2 cups of pecans (or walnuts if you prefer) and stir around over med heat about 4 minutes.
Ooh, an action shot!

After the pecans are removed from the heat, sprinkle them with a tablespoon of sugar so they'll be all sparkly.

These are pretty good just for snacking on by themselves!

11 comments:

cathy said...

thank you for your comment on my cookies! and your salad looks delicious - i like how you changed up those pecans! yum yum

Julie said...

Thanks, they really are yummy!

Tiffany said...

I'm going to have to try this salad. It looks like a more savory version of a strawberry spinach salad with glazed pecans that I've made. Thanks for sharing it!

That Girl said...

Wow! Look at all these fantastic dishes! I will for sure be visiting often! thanks for stopping by my blog. ;)

Meaghan said...

yummy yummy yummy! Welcome to SITS :)

-meaghan

Unknown said...

Thanks so much for stopping by my blog yesterday . :-)

Oh yum, that spinach salad looks really good. I love spinach ! I need to try this.

I really like your blog, BTW.

Julie said...

Thanks for the nice comments!

Anonymous said...

Hi Visiting from SITS... I am the comment below you on Friday. That salad looks totally yummy! I love spinach... pecans are a nice touch!
:) Robin
cinnamon & honey

Tiffany said...

I gave this recipe to my mom because she needed a salad to take to a lunch. She said it was great! I think I'm going to make this one to take to my inlaws for Thanksgiving.

Tiffany said...

I made this to take to my in-laws for Thanksgiving. It was amazing! I'll be making it again for sure!

Julie said...

I'm glad you liked it. I made it again for thanksgiving too :)