Red, White and Blue Salad

Acadia*'s Note:

This is a colorful salad to impress your family and friends with your special taste for mixing the right foods to enhance a delicious combination of flavors. This recipe was created for the "Category Craze-E Contest! With the sub-category of Start with Salad at a Dinner Party! *NOTE: Now that the contest is over I have substituted blue berries for the peas which was one of the special must use ingredients, as suggested by Jen.

• Total Time: 44 mins
• Prep Time: 29 mins
• Cook Time: 15 mins

Ingredients:

Servings: 6

• 1/4 cup olive oil (extra virgin)
• 3 teaspoons honey
• 2 teaspoons fresh tarragon (minced)
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 1/2 cup walnuts
• Pam cooking spray
• 4 cups baby spinach (fresh)
• 3/4 cup blueberries (fresh)
• 3 pears (cored and diced)
• 1 cup strawberry (cleaned and sliced)
• 1/4 cup blue cheese (crumbled)

Directions:

1. Combine in a cruet olive oil, honey, tarragon & cider vinegar and shake well to mix. (Set aside).
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F. In a baking dish cut a piece of baker's parchment paper and line the bottom.
3. Coarse chop walnuts. Place walnuts on top of the parchment paper in a single layer, spray with Pam cooking spray and toast for 10-15 minutes.
4. Shake vinegarette well to mix up again.
5. In a bowl gently mix baby spinach, blueberries, pears, walnuts and strawberries together with vinegarette mixture in cruet.
6. Divide the salad mixture evenly between 6 plates and crumble blue cheese on to each salad.

Reviews

[ellie_]

Absolutely delicious and perfect for summer -- I made some minor changes by skipping the walnuts and adding blackberries and also the amounts of spinach and fruit (except for the pears) where probably off a tad. Thanks for sharing this keeper salad which we will be having again and again this summer!

[Chef Buggsy Mate]

We loved the combination of the fruits and nuts with the spinach. The flavors compliment each other so well. I made the dressing to go on the salad however; no one in the family cared for it, so we did not add it to the salad. With all the other flavors it surly wasn't missed. And it was a beautiful addition to our Easter dinner. I will definitely be making this salad again next weekend, because my oldest DD requested it for the sleepover. Thanks for sharing this very tasty and healthy salad Debby. Made and reviewed for Spring PAC 2010

[JanuaryBride]

Excellent. Made it as written, except I added just a little bit of Dijon Mustard to the dressing. Loved it. . .thanks for posting! Made for Veggie Swap Feb 2010.