Mixed Green Salad With Oranges, Dried Cranberries and Pecans

Submitted by Bev I Am

"Enjoy this wonderful light and fresh salad for holiday time, or anytime! Cooking time reflects marinating the dried cranberries. I discovered this recipe in Bon Appetit, 1998"

 

• Ready In: 50mins
• Ingredients: 9
• Serves: 6

ingredients

• 1 cup orange juice
• 3 tablespoons orange juice
• 6 tablespoons dried cranberries
• 3 1⁄2 tablespoons olive oil
• 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
• 1 tablespoon grated orange peel
• 6 cups mixed baby greens
• 3 oranges, peel and white pith removed, segmented
• 3⁄4 cup pecans, toasted

directions

1. Bring 1 cup orange juice to simmer in heavy small saucepan. Remove from heat.
2. Mix in dried cranberries.
3. Let stand until softened, about 30 minutes. Drain well; discard soaking juice.
4. Whisk oil, vinegar, orange peel and remaining 3 tablespoons orange juice in small bowl to blend. Mix in cranberries.
5. Season dressing to taste with salt and pepper. (Can be prepared 1 day ahead. Cover and refrigerate. Bring to room temperature before serving.).
6. Place greens in large bowl.
7. Toss with 2/3 of dressing.
8. Divide greens among 6 plates.
9. Add orange segments to bowl; toss with remaining dressing.
10. Top salads with orange segments and pecans.

Reviews

[Tinkerbell]

Loved this salad! I love mixed greens, cranberries and pecans, but I don't usually put fresh oranges in the mix. I'm glad I finally tried it. The cranberries plumped up so nice and the balance of bitter greens, sweet cranberries and tangy oranges was very refreshing. Tonight wasn't a special occasion, but I'll definitely remember this recipe when the holidays do roll around again. I also think this would be an excellent summer weather salad. Thanks for posting, Bev! :)

 

[Jacquie]

Wonderful and light. I used fresh tangerine sections instead of oranges, otherwise prepared as directed

 

[Abby Girl]

I found this recipe in the Bon Appetit archives years ago. I serve this quite often around Christmas time. Yummers!

 

[COOKGIRl]

Original review 18 Feb 2008:I know that everyone enjoyed this salad because there was nothing left in the salad bowl. Next time I would reduce the amount of orange juice (for soaking the cranberries) in half. I also used brown sugar and candied the pecans in a cast iron skillet. For more color, about 1/2 cup of red onion crescents were added to the salad. Thanks for posting. I will definitely make this again. PS> Update: I used the orange juice used for soaking the cranberries to make the vinaigrette.

 

[Chef Maria 2]

This was good and added lots of color to the plate. The only change made was I used craisins instead of dried cranberries.