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Wednesday, July 25, 2012

Strawberry Balsamic Vinaigrette Salad Recipe

strawberry salad with candied walnuts, tomatoes & onions (1
I wanted to share the recipe for making my {current} favorite salad. I made it for my littlest child’s first birthday this weekend and it received rave reviews.
~Salad Ingredients~
Lettuce (1 head or whatever you need to fill your bowl.)
1 small tomato, chopped
1 small onion, chopped
1/2 pound of chopped strawberries
1 1/2 cups walnuts
1/2 cup sugar
~Dressing Ingredients~
3 T Olive Oil
3 T Balsamic Vinegar
1/2-3/4 t salt
1/4 t pepper
pinch of sugar
1. Toast the walnuts in a single layer on a baking sheet at 350 degrees for 5 minutes.
2. Candy the walnuts by melting the sugar in a small saucepan. Stir with a wooden spoon until it is liquid. Once it is melted, add the walnuts and stir to coat.
3. Remove the walnuts to a sheet of parchment paper to cool. Separate with two forks.
4. Combine the dressing ingredients in a jar or other container with a lid.
5. Toss all salad ingredients with cooled candied walnuts in a large bowl. Chill before serving and then shake the dressing and pour over chilled salad to serve.
Balsalmic vinegar dressing for strawberry salad with candied walnuts, tomatoes & onions (2)

While we're on the subject of cooking, I tried cake decorating again (you may remember the cake decorating fail I shared from my oldest son’s birthday a few weeks ago.) Things went better this time and I made some cute extra-large cupcakes with piped blue icing.
july 21 (7)
They were tasty.

11 comments:

  1. Yum! I made a homemade strawberry vinegar with the tops from all the strawberries we bought in June. It's really good but I haven't used it for much yet. Maybe I'll try this and use the strawberry vinegar and balsamic.

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    1. I bet that would be very tasty! The tops were used to make vinegar? I didn't know you could do that. Neat way to use what many would consider compost!

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  2. I would argue that most would just throw them away, but yes, you're right :)

    I was talking with one of our great local chefs in Cleveland that really believes in the earth to table movement and using everything and he shared the idea with me. All I did was save all the hulls in a bowl, covered them with white vinegar, and then covered the bowl with saran wrap and let it sit on the counter for a week or so. I tasted it everyday to see how it was progressing. It really took on a lot of the strawberry taste! I think it would be great in a BBQ sauce but like I said I haven't played with it much yet.

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  3. I always love a strawberry salad and Dave has me really intrigued with his strawberry barbecue sauce idea!

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  4. Check out this blog post http://spicehound.blogspot.com/2008/06/brisket-with-strawberryguajillo-bbq.html

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  5. I think I would eat the entire bowl! This is my favorite salad version to eat. Thanks for sharing at the Happy Hello this week!

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  6. Candied walnuts make everything better. :) This looks absolutely incredible! I'll have to try it out and when I do, I'll feature it on my blog and be sure to refer back to you. :) Thanks for sharing! New follower.

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    1. Thanks for reading! Hope you enjoy the recipe.

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  7. I always love adding a few strawberries to my tossed salad when they are in season- so yummy!

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  8. Yum, strawberries in a salad is a great idea! Thanks so much for sharing at The Fun In Functional!

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