A salad loaded with Dijon maple dressing perfect for winter and your festive table!
By Brenda Score from A Farmgirl’s Dabbles.
Preparation:
To cook:
Level: Easy
Ingredients
- FOR THE MAPLE MUSTARD VINAIGRETTE:
- ¾ cups Vegetable oil
- ¼ cups Dijon Mustard
- ¼ cups Pure maple syrup
- ¼ cups Red wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon Very finely chopped fresh shallot
- ⅛ teaspoons Curry powder
- ¼ teaspoons Kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoons Freshly ground black pepper
- FOR THE SALAD:
- 4 cups Low sodium chicken broth
- 1 cup Whole wild rice (not cracked)
- 2 teaspoons Kosher salt
- 1 pound Bacon, or to taste
- 1 whole Medium apple, thinly sliced
- ¼ Lemon, freshly squeezed, for the apples
- 8 cups Fresh, preferably robust greens like arugula and/or kale
- 1 cup Fresh pomegranate seeds, or your choice
- 1-½ cup Red or green grapes, halved, or your choice
- 1 cup Crumbled blue cheese, or to taste
- 1-½ cup Large chopped roasted and salted pecans (I recommend Trader Joe’s)
Preparation
Please note that most of the salad ingredient quantities can be adjusted as desired.
For the maple mustard dressing:
Place all dressing ingredients in a small bowl and use an immersion blender to blend until smooth and emulsified. If you don’t have an immersion blender, place all dressing ingredients in a jar or container with an airtight lid and shake until emulsified. Just know that the dressing won’t be as smooth.
For the salad:
First, cook the wild rice. Heat a medium to large saucepan over high heat. Add the chicken broth and bring to a boil. Stir in wild rice and salt. Reduce heat to low/medium-low, cover and simmer until wild rice is split and rolled up. This should take around 1 hour. If you see a fair amount of unopened wild rice, simmer for another 15 minutes. Remove from heat and drain off any excess liquid. Stir with a fork and set aside.
Fry the bacon in a skillet over medium heat, until crispy. Remove the bacon from the skillet and drain on a plate lined with paper towel. Once cooled, cut into bite-size pieces.
Place the apple slices in a bowl and squeeze some lemon juice over them. Stir a few times to coat. This will help them not brown so quickly.
To assemble the salad, place a layer of greens in the bottom of the selected dish. Then arrange the rest of the ingredients as desired. Serve with maple mustard dressing on the side.
Note: The ingredient possibilities are nearly endless for a salad like this. If you don’t like pecans, use pistachios, walnuts or almonds. Pears would be delicious instead of apples. Goat cheese would be nice if blue cheese isn’t your thing. And prosciutto would be a good substitute for bacon.
