A simple yet delicious spinach salad with honey crisp apples, mandarin oranges, chopped pecans, dried cranberries, all topped with a homemade citrus poppyseed dressing.
Hi all! It’s Lauren back from Lauren’s Recipe Box ready to share with you one of my favorite salads of all time! I don’t know about you, but Winter is one of the hardest times for me to stick to a healthy diet. Maybe it is the cold weather, holidays, or maybe it is just an excuse to be bad 🙂 Either way, I am trying to make some healthier choices this month and this honey crisp winter salad is the perfect start! A bed of baby spinach loaded with thinly sliced honey crisp apples, mandarin oranges, chopped pecans, dried cranberries, and the BEST citrus poppyseed dressing… This salad will make you forget all about those Chick-fil-a waffle fries 😉
Start the dressing by combining lemon juice, olive oil, honey, and mustard into a food processor (pulsing a few seconds to make sure ingredients are fully combined). Add poppy seeds to mixture and set aside. Rinse and dry the baby spinach.
Remove stems if desired and place leaves in bowl. Thinly slice the apple, dice avocado, and drain and rinse the mandarin oranges. Place the apple slices and oranges in a little bit of lemon juice and add to salad bowl. Add pecans, diced avocado, and dried cranberries to the salad bowl. When ready to eat, add the dressing and toss the salad. I chose to leave off the cheese but feta would be a great pairing if desired!
Ingredients
- Salad:
- 5 ounces baby spinach
- 1 large Honeycrisp apple
- 1 can mandarin oranges
- 1 avocado
- 2 teaspoons lemon juice
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- Dressing:
- 3/4 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh lemon juice
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon poppyseeds
Instructions
- Dressing:
- Combine lemon juice, olive oil, honey, and mustard into a food processor (pulsing a few seconds to make sure ingredients are fully combined).
- Add poppyseeds to mixture and set aside.
- Salad:
- Rinse and dry the baby spinach.
- Remove stems if desired and place leaves in bowl.
- Thinly slice the apple, dice avocado, and drain and rinse the mandarin oranges.
- Place the apple slices and oranges in a little bit of lemon juice and add to salad bowl.
- Add pecans, diced avocado, and dried cranberries to the salad bowl.
- When ready to eat, add the dressing and toss the salad.
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