Fruit and Nut Salad with Berry Vinaigrette

As an Amazon Associate, I earn from qualifying purchases. Read the full disclosure here.

This month the Barlean’s Blogger Challenge is all about clean eating!  Now I’m all for clean eating because it’s a great way to get some of the toxins out of your life but I’m not someone who eats strictly clean.  There are too many things I like on the list of things that aren’t clean.   However, I got a great new cookbook, Eating Clean by Amie Valpone, that has some amazing recipes in it that I can’t wait to try!

I received Organic Fresh Flax Oil and Organic Forti-Flax to help with this challenge.   I’ve used flax oil before so I was familiar with how to use it.  One thing to note is that flax oil shouldn’t be heated so it’s good for making salad dressings, hummus, dips, or in smoothies.   I wasn’t familiar with the Forti-Flax so I had to look up how to use it.  Since receiving it I’ve used it stirred into my yogurt and oatmeal.  It’s also good as a partial replacement for flour in baked goods or sprinkled on top of muffins.

I decided to use the flax oil in a salad dressing.   Before making the dressing I wanted to come up with a delicious and clean salad recipe.  One thing to note is that a clean eating diet generally does not include dairy or gluten so that meant no cheese or croutons in my salad.  These are two items I almost always put in my salads so I had to find a way to get added flavor and crunch without the cheese or gluten.

I started with the crunch factor.  I knew that nuts were allowed in a clean eating diet so I went to my cupboard to look for some.  I had a bag of cashews and thought they would add a bit of texture and a hint of salt to the salad.  Then I looked in the fruit bowl and saw both blood oranges and apples.  I thought these would add great color and flavor to the salad.  I finished the salad by looking in my veggie drawer and taking out a bell pepper and an onion.

After making my Fruit and Nut Salad I started working on a dressing.   Since flax oil has a bit of a taste to it I wanted to use some flavors that were bold and would stand up.  Since I was making a Fruit and Nut Salad I thought a berry dressing might be tasty.  I happen to have strawberries and blackberries in the refrigerator so I went with those.   Then I added some herbs to give the dressing some flavor.  I really liked the sweet and savory combination of the dressing.  I paired so nicely with the actual salad.

So how was the salad?   It was great!   The first thing to note is that this is a bright salad with gorgeous colors.  It just looks pretty sitting in the bowl.  The dressing was a beautiful bright pink color.  Poured on top of the salad it was the perfect pairing.  There was crunch, sweetness, saltiness, and a nice citrus flavor.   This is definitely a salad I’ll be making again!

Continue to Content

Fruit and Nut Salad with Berry Vinaigrette

Yield: serves 4

Prep Time: 15 minutes

Total Time: 15 minutes

Clean eating doesn't have to be boring and with this bright and colorful Fruit and Nut Salad with fresh berry dressing you won't miss any of the foods you used to love!

Print

Ingredients

For the salad:

• 4 c. mixed greens
• 1/4 c. onions, thinly sliced
• 1/4 c. orange bell pepper, chopped
• 1/2 apple, chopped
• 1/2 blood orange, cut into pieces
• 1/4 c. cashews

For the dressing:

• 1/4 c. Flax Oil
• 2 Tablespoons vinegar
• 2 teaspoons organic honey
• salt and pepper
• 2 strawberries
• 4 blackberries
• 1 teaspoon oregano

Instructions

1. In a large bowl combine the mixed greens, onions, bell peppers, apple, orange, and cashews. Toss to combine and set aside.
2. In a food processor combine all the ingredients for the dressing. Process until smooth.
3. Divide the salad mixture between four bowls.
4. Serve salads with the dressing.

Notes

A Hezzi-D original recipe

I’m part of the Barlean’s Blogger Challenge but all opinions here are 100% my own.