Fruit and Nut Salad with Berry Vinaigrette
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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!
Fruit and Nut Salad with Berry Vinaigrette
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
- In a large bowl combine the mixed greens, onions, bell peppers, apple, orange, and cashews. Toss to combine and set aside.
- In a food processor combine all the ingredients for the dressing. Process until smooth.
- Divide the salad mixture between four bowls.
- Serve salads with the dressing.
Notes
I’m part of the Barlean’s Blogger Challenge but all opinions here are 100% my own.