Although it is still cold in many parts of the country, temperatures here in Southern California shot up to almost summer-like highs over the past few days. The sudden heat has cause me - and many others - to turn away from hot soup and "comfort food" cookbooks and turn back to salads and other cool, light fare. This salad is idea for moving from winter into spring, although you could make it all year round, because it incorporates fresh oranges, dried cranberries and salty-sweet candied nuts, all of which are frequently used in late fall and winter dishes and desserts. These sweet salad components are on a bed of mixed baby greens and diced avocado. I dressed the whole salad with a heavily vinegar-based dressing (a citrus flavored vinegar mixed with a bit of oil, salt and pepper) to enhance the brightness of all of the components.
For the candied nuts, I used some of the Cranberry Orange Flavor Nutorious nuts, which went perfectly with the rest of the salad ingredients. Any spiced or candied nuts will work well here, though.As with all salads, the amount of each ingredient will vary depending on how many people you expect to serve. I often simply use a large mixing bowl, then keep adding in bits and pieces until the salad looks balanced, so it's a very casual process. Here, I'm giving the approximate amounts to serve four.
Baby Green Salad with citrus, cranberries and candied nuts
1 large bag of mixed baby greens (12-oz. or so)
1 large navel orange
1 ripe avocado
1/2 cup candied/spiced nuts, slightly chopped
1/4 cup dried cranberries
Wash and dry baby greens and place in a large salad bowl. Dice orange and avocado into bite size pieces and add to greens with cranberries and nuts. Toss together with dressing* and season with salt and pepper.
Serves 4, as a side.
*For my dressing, I used about 1/4 cup citrus vinegar whisked with 1 tbsp vegetable oil and some salt and pepper, then poured it on and tossed the salad(I didn't quite use it all). Use your favorite light dressing if you don't want to make your own.
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