With the fall weather approaching we have been craving all of those warm flavors. Our Honey Harvest Spinach Salad brings all of those warm flavors to life. This salad is comprised of bacon, apples, goat cheese and warm potatoes to deliver fall favorites right in one plate. Salads get a bad reputation because many leave someone still hungry after they finish. The salads that do not leave you satisfied are not comprised of filling foods like this one. When we first made this Phillip was unsure he was going be full because there was very little meat like chicken added. But he was happy to be proved wrong when he finished and wanted seconds but was so full he stopped himself.
Honey Harvest Spinach Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb baby potatoes
- 4 cloves garlic finely chopped
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1 pinch salt
- 1 pinch pepper
- 1 package baby spinach
- ½ red onion sliced
- 6-8 slices bacon crumbled
- ½ cup pecans roughly chopped
- 2 apple sliced
- goat cheese as desired
Maple Honey Dressing
- ½ cup olive oil
- 1 tbsp honey
- 1 tsp salt
- ½ tsp pepper
- 4 cloves garlic
- 1 ½ tsp lemon juice
- 1 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 2 tbsp dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp maple syrup
Instructions
- Preheat oven to 450°
- Slice half of the potatoes in half and leave the others whole
- On a baking pan cover the potatoes with olive oil, garlic, salt, and pepper
- Bake for 35-40 minutes or until potatoes are begining to crisp and brown
- When the potatoes are ready, remove them from the oven and add another pinch of salt and pepper
- While potatoes are roasting, bake or fry bacon, let cool and crumble up in a small bowl
- Add all ingredients for the Maple Honey Dressing into a blender and blend until smooth
- If dressing is too thick add in a tsp of olive oil at a time until desired thickness
- Set aside until ready to use
- Begin assembling the Honey Harvest Spinach Salad by adding spinach to the base of your bowls
- Add red onion, bacon, apples, pecans, and baby potatoes to the salad
- Pour on desired amount of Maple Honey Dressing and top with goat cheese
Maple Honey Dressing
This dressing is thick and it should be. This is not meant to be an oily vinaigrette, the exact opposite actually. If this is too thick however for your liking, you can add more olive oil or a bit of water to the dressing to get a thinner consistency. For this recipe, I do not recommend putting the dressing in the fridge prior to adding it to the salad. Let it sit out on the counter until constructing the salads.
The potatoes will be warm so when you add a room temperature dressing it will help thin the dressing out and coat the salad well. If the dressing is cold from the fridge it will not react the same way and thin out on the salad as it should. After using this dressing if you have extra store it in the fridge. This dressing will store well in an airtight container for up to a week. We have used this dressing as a chicken marinade and added to other wraps and meals when we have extra.
Try some of our other hearty salads!
From our kitchen to yours, cheers!
