Festive Fruit & Nut Salad

      Dress up your holiday salad greens with fruit and sugared nuts, then drizzle with a sweet but tangy dressing.

     This is one of our favorite salads and it is actually good all year long. For variety, try other fruits (apples, blueberries, etc.) or any other type of nuts, sugared or just toasted.

Fruit & Nut Salad

For one salad . . .

   A handful of your favorite salad greens

   Mandarin oranges (fresh such as California Cuties or canned or jarred)

   Sugared nuts*

   Dried cranberries

   Celery Seed Dressing

1.  Add a handful of green to salad plate (place plates in refrigerator prior to making salad for a chilled plate that keeps the salad really crisp).

2.  Add several orange segments and a sprinkling of nuts and cranberries. Drizzle lightly with dressing.

Sugared Nuts

Nuts

Granulated sugar

(For about 1 cup of nuts, use about ½ to ¾ cup sugar – it’s a matter of personal preference so it’s kind of trial and error proportions)

1.  Place nuts in a skillet; add sugar.

I'm sugaring rough chopped whole almonds.

2.  Cook the nuts over medium heat (if heat is too high, the nuts will burn). Stir occasionally and watch carefully. The nuts will brown, the sugar will turn to syrup and the nuts will release a nutty fragrance.  Stir to evenly coat the nuts and remove from heat as soon as syrup starts to turn a light brown.

3.  Immediately pour onto a sheet of wax paper.

Be sure to immediately remove nuts to a waxed paper lined sheet;
if you leave them in the skillet they will stick and be very difficult to remove.

4.  Let cool and break apart.

5.  Store the sugared nuts in an air-tight container until ready to serve (they keep for a week or longer).  In addition to adding the nuts to lettuce salads, they can be sprinkled on top of ice cream or use to decorate other desserts.

Hints For Preparing Salad Greens

·  Clean greens by plunging in and out of cold water (prolonged soaking causes soggy greens).

·  Separate core from leaves; rinse and dry. Remove bad spots.

·  To store clean greens, layer in a plastic container with paper towels. 

·  Cut sturdy greens (Romaine) and tear delicate greens (Bib, Boston or Leaf) into bite-size pieces.

A general guide . . . allow about 1 handful of greens for each side salad. Using that guideline the yield for Romaine lettuce is usually 6 to 7 servings and loose-leaf lettuce generally yields 5 to 6 servings.

How Much Dressing To Use?

The general rule for dressing: Dress the greens with only enough dressing to lightly coat them right before serving. The normal ratio is one-third ounce (about 2 teaspoons) of dressing per ounce of greens (about 1 handful).

Of course, the salad dressing can be served from a small pitcher allowing each guest to add the amount desired.