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Holiday Spinach Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette

11/9/2014

28 Comments

 
I was happy to receive some De Nigris 1889 vinegar products to use in my cooking.  All opinions are 100% my own.

If you're looking for an easy-to-throw-together salad to serve with your upcoming holiday meals, this is it.  With a delicious homemade vinaigrette, a simple spinach salad goes from ho-hum to vibrant and brilliant in a pinch.
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Let's talk about salad dressings.

I'm a bit of a salad dressing snob, you might say.  I do not enjoy the typical salad dressings most commonly found in restaurants like ranch, blue cheese, french....No way.  But I LOVE salad.  Herein lies the problem.  What this problem has ended up resorting me to is ordering a "dressing" for my salad that is a bit unconventional...  

Yellow mustard.

Yep, just plain yellow mustard is what I will order while out at restaurants to top off my salads.  Not dijon mustard. Not honey mustard. Just yellow mustard, the kind you add to your hot dogs and hamburgers.  I've been doing it for years and haven't gotten tired of it yet.  The only thing I get tired of is the strange looks from my waiter or fellow table guests. I'll still order the mustard on the side regardless.

There is an exception to this sacred salad dressing choice of mine and that is if I happen to find myself in a restaurant with a really good made-in-house vinaigrette.  I've had some exceptional poppyseed, white wine and garlic, and blueberry vinaigrettes in my day.  

One thing I have yet to do, however, is make my own vinaigrette at home.  Where have I been?!  I have no idea.  But when I opened up my first bottle of the De Nigris white wine vinegar (side note: I'm also a huge vinegar fan) it's like the aroma of the vinegar spoke to me and said "I want to become a vinaigrette".  I was happy to oblige.
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These were the 3 new De Nigris 1889 vinegars I have been given the chance to try.  I thought a homemade vinaigrette was now in order. The De Nigris Italian White Wine Vinegar original flavor was the perfect addition to what ended up becoming a wonderful balancing act of tangy and sweet to combine into the cranberry vinaigrette. All of their vinegars would be perfect taste enhancers to use all year round.  
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Source
The De Nigris line of vinegars can be found in your local Walmart. 

You can find out more about De Nigris 1889 and this company's long line of history of working with vinegars on their website here.


Find more De Nigris recipes by following them on Facebook and Twitter.

Holiday Spinach Salad
with Cranberry Vinaigrette

Serves: 4

Ingredients:
For the Salad:

4 cups baby spinach
1/4 cup chopped walnuts (toasted)
1/4 cup feta cheese
1/4 cup dried cranberries

For the Vinaigrette:
3 Tbsp. extra-virgin olive oil
3 Tbsp. De Nigris 1889 White Wine Vinegar (or other white wine vinegar)
3 Tbsp. dried cranberries
1 Tbsp. honey
1/8 tsp. salt

Directions:
To prepare the vinaigrette add all ingredients for vinaigrette into food processor. Process until finely chopped (about 30 sec.). Add vinaigrette to small container or bowl.  

Add chopped walnuts to small pan on stove.  Toast walnuts over medium-high heat until you just start to smell their toasty aroma in air (about 5 min.).  Remove walnuts from heat and allow to cool. Place spinach, toasted walnuts, feta, and dried cranberries in large bowl.  Add 4-5 Tbsp. vinaigrette to salad in bowl and toss to combine.  

*Note* Could serve salads in each bowl with vinaigrette separately to allow each person to dress their own salad. Store remaining salad dressing in small container in fridge.
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Healthy Recipe Tidbits

  • Like most vinegars, white wine vinegar helps regulate blood sugar levels and provides short-term appetite control--both of which can be beneficial to those looking to lose weight and/or diabetics.
  • Vinegar is high in acetic acid which, when eaten with a meal, can aid in absorption of essential minerals locked in foods that may have been lost in the digestion process otherwise.
  • Vinegar consumption can be especially beneficial to women because of its ability to aid in calcium absorption to maintain bone health and decrease likelihood of developing osteoperosis.
  • Dried cranberries are known mostly for their antioxidant properties; however, studies have also shown that dried cranberries, just like cranberry juice, can help reduce the likelihood of one developing urinary tract infections and can even help with the symptoms of those suffering from a UTI.

 Linking up with Heather's Friday Favorites over at Housewife Glamour 
Picture

Have you ever tried making your own vinaigrette at home?


Favorite salad and/or salad dressing?
28 Comments
Lauren @ i had a big lunch link
11/10/2014 12:19:06 am

I always appreciate it when bloggers share salad dressing recipes - not having good tasting but still healthy dressings is the reason why I don't eat more salads! This looks great though!

Reply
Kaylin
11/10/2014 10:39:19 am

Thank you, Lauren! I hope I've inspired you to try out making some salad dressing yourself. My mom and dad both raved about this vinaigrette and they're both pickier with their salad dressings as well so I think you should give it a shot. Plus with so few ingredients it's really REALLY easy. It'll make you want to eat more salads. ;)

Reply
Cailee link
11/10/2014 04:31:42 am

This looks amazing! A great way to add a fruity flavor to your salad! YUM...and don't feel weird! I eat mustard with my salads too!! Haha... it really is delicious! I usually use a splash of cider vinegar and then a side of whole grain, spicy mustard! It's so delightful and so much less calories then the creamy/ fatty/ oily ones you find at the salad bar! :)

Reply
Kaylin
11/10/2014 10:41:22 am

Thank you so much, Cailee! Oh my goodness...I have only "met" one other blogger that actually used mustard as a salad dressing before. Nice to meet another one! I, too, use vinegars typically mixed with a bit of maple syrup (for sweetness) sometimes when making my salads at home to top them off. And you're very right--mustard is a far better option than most bottled salad dressings for the nutritional facts. Thanks for stopping by!

Reply
Kay @ Kay Bueno link
11/11/2014 01:12:40 pm

This looks so good. I love mustard-y dressing.

When I used to work at a restaurant, I would always pile our salsa on top of salads because we basically only had honey mustard and ranch dressing. It worked. :)

Reply
Kaylin
11/13/2014 07:42:28 am

Me too, Kay! If a restaurant happens to have a housemade mustard dressing of sorts, I'll go for that too. I think I just like acidic dressings of all sorts...I have a friend of mine that likes to put salsa on her salads as well. I think I've even done it before at a Mexican restaurant when they didn't have mustard to give me.

Reply
Natalie Z. link
11/12/2014 01:39:19 am

Oh that looks so delicious! Cranberry is such a treat this time of year!

Reply
Kaylin
11/13/2014 07:42:58 am

Thank you, Natalie! 'Tis the season. :)

Reply
Cassie @ Almost Getting it Together link
11/12/2014 01:52:21 pm

I ALWAYS make my own salad dressing! So much tastier and you always know what's going into it. Never tried making with cranberries before but now I'll have to!

Reply
Kaylin
11/13/2014 07:44:03 am

I'm glad I have a better appreciation of making salad dressings at home. It was much easier even than I thought it would be. If you ever have any salad dressing recipe recommendations, send 'em my way! If you happen to give this one a go, let me know.

Reply
Sky @ Blonde Freedom link
11/13/2014 10:50:06 am

I bet my mom and my sister would absolutely love this salad dressing. I'll have to send them the link!

Reply
Kaylin
11/16/2014 03:06:12 am

Great, thank you Sky! It's definitely a simple salad dressing but packed full of flavor. Perfect for a lot of varieties of salad actually.

Reply
Ashley @ A Lady Goes West link
11/15/2014 12:22:27 pm

Hi Kaylin, I'd put mustard on a salad for sure. I made a salad very similar to this one last Thanksgiving and the flavor combinations are the best. Happy Saturday to you! :)

Reply
Kaylin
11/16/2014 03:06:55 am

Always glad to from hear people who have an open mind about mustard on a salad. Happy Saturday to you as well, Ashley! Thank you very much

Reply
Lily Lau link
11/16/2014 07:28:54 am

It's always funny to learn new salad recipes! Thanks for sharing, I'll try this for tomorrow night's one :)

Reply
Kaylin
11/17/2014 03:23:54 am

Glad to share a new salad recipe with you, Lily! Thank you for visiting and I hope you give this one a try. :)

Reply
Kayla Shown-Dean link
11/16/2014 10:53:57 am

This looks ammmmmmmmazing!

Reply
Kaylin
11/17/2014 03:24:12 am

Many thanks, Kayla!

Reply
Jamie link
11/16/2014 11:54:02 am

I love spinach with nuts and fruit! I'm not a big vinegar fan but a fruit-based vinagarette is good. I would exchange pecans for walnuts simply because I'm allergic to walnuts.

Reply
Kaylin
11/18/2014 07:26:34 am

This vinegar was the perfect touch to balance out the sweetness of the cranberries in the vinaigrette, Jamie. Thank you for visiting and giving input!

Reply
Khushboo link
11/16/2014 04:49:03 pm

Glad I'm not the only one who likes salad with mustard- so strange yet so good :)! Since I started making my own salad dressings, I don't buy the bottled stuff anymore. I usually do honey mustard but I love the sound of a cranberry vinaigrette- I bet it's fab on turkey too :)!

Reply
Kaylin
11/18/2014 07:27:37 am

Yes! Score! Another mustard on salad fan! Honey mustard is my second favorite mustard or dressing to put on salads, so I am with ya there. My mother did try the cranberry vinaigrette on some chicken for dinner and loved it, so I'm sure it'd be great on turkey as well!

Reply
Dulcie @ Foodie Fiasco link
11/17/2014 11:11:23 am

I love how you use mustard as a dressing! It's frustrating when the only options when eating out are to douse your veggies in slimy ranch or to crunch 'em straight-up. I just may have to steal your idea at my next salad outing;-) Speaking of salad outings, I think I'm going to have a salad in-ing(a new thing) and invite some friends over to sample this tasty looking recipe with me! Thanks for sharing this dish, Kaylin!

Reply
Kaylin
11/18/2014 07:29:17 am

Thank you so much, Dulcie! I agree, I wish there were more options when going out to dinner for salad dressings. And I've even been to many restaurants that don't carry mustard (which is a little ridiculous to me unless you're an extremely authentic exotic restaurant) so I've had to go without. I hope you give mustard a chance on your salad sometime! It's better than most people think. And far healthier than many of the bottled ones with added preservatives and fake ingredients.

Reply
Tara | treble in the kitchen link
11/17/2014 10:56:50 pm

Looks amazing!! :)

Reply
Kaylin
11/18/2014 07:29:36 am

Thank you so much, Tara!

Reply
Anita link
11/18/2014 01:33:33 am

Such a beautiful salad, and I love the Cranberry Vinaigrette recipe. This is going in my "to make" notebook. I agree about many restaurant dressings being poor quality.

Reply
Kaylin
11/18/2014 07:30:25 am

Many thanks, Anita! The vinaigrette recipe is super simple so I hope you give it a try. Thanks for visiting!

Reply



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    enticing healthy Eating

    Happiness is Homemade

    Hi there!  I'm Kaylin, a foodie, health nut, and recent college graduate. Born and raised in Arkansas, recently moved to Texas. On this blog you'll find a lot of tasty food and recipe ideas, healthy lifestyle suggestions, and random musings of my trials and tribulations of a 20-something. 
    I hope to inspire you to create some delicious things in your own kitchen because I believe happiness is homemade. 

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