The idea of seasons is kind of laughable to me because I live in Southern California where probably about 90% of the time it’s some variation of 70s or 80s and sunny. It doesn’t seem overly often that there’s a cloud in the sky actually. For most of the rest of the Northern Hemisphere it was the first day of spring a few days back. But you wouldn’t know it if you watch the news and pay attention to the weather. At least not in the U.S. There’s a nor’easter tearing through the East coast where it’s been unseasonably cold the past few days.
Cold and snowy weather doesn’t exactly inspire thoughts of spring-like foods but since the weather in So Cal doesn’t change much I decided it was just fine to dive into spring. Rummaging through the fridge I came up a few ingredients for salad: mixed baby greens, raspberries, blueberries, balsamic vinaigrette and blue cheese. Blue cheese was out because I was using some to make a blue cheese quiche. I didn’t want to go overboard on the blue cheese by using it in the salad that was meant to accompany the quiche. I was cooking for my aunt and my dad and though my and aunt and I do love blue cheese my dad does not.
So I found a simple recipe that called for lettuce, berries and candied almonds. It looked like the perfect recipe to use up the rest of the raspberries. So I whipped up some candied almonds and we had ourselves a nice spring-like salad bursting with berries.
ingredients.
- Mixed greens
- Fresh raspberries, washed & dried
- Fresh blueberries, washed & dried
- Candied Almonds
- Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Fresh cracked pepper
directions.
Place the desired amount of mixed greens in a large bowl. Add berries and crushed candied almonds. Toss in bowl with balsamic vinaigrette. Top with fresh cracked pepper, if desired.
You will notice that I did not prescribe the amounts of ingredients for this salad. This is in large part because I wholeheartedly agree people should add what they want into their salad. If you like lots of berries, go for it. Heavy on the almonds? Your choice. I like to have about an even ratio so I can get all flavors at one time, but I have a hard time getting all the ingredients onto my fork!
Recipe rating:
Food Snob 