Spinach Salad With Caramelized Pecans

Spinach Salad With Caramelized Pecans

  • Prep Time: 10 mins
  • Total Time: 13 mins
  • Servings: 4

    • About This Recipe

    “Caramelized pecans make this salad especially good. This is a salad they used to serve at the restaurant one of my son’s worked at, Rockbottom Brewery. If you want a salad with a bit more punch, try blue cheese instead of the feta.”

    Ingredients

  • 1tablespoonbutter
  • 1/2 cuppecan halves
  • 1tablespoonbrown sugar
  • 1 (6ounce) packages fresh baby spinach( I also like to make it with a combination of freshbaby spinach and baby greens)
  • 1largegranny smith apple, cored, sliced and then cut each slice into bite-size pieces
  • 1/2 cupcrumbled feta cheese
  • 2tablespoonsolive oil
  • 2tablespoonswhite vinegar

    • Directions

  • Melt butter in small frying pan over low heat.
  • Add pecans and brown sugar.
  • Cook 2 to 3 minutes, stirring constantly until mixture is caramelized.
  • Spread out on wax paper to cool.
  • In bowl toss together spinach, pecans, apple and cheese.
  • Add oil and vinegar and toss again until everything is coated.
  • Chef’s note:To make ahead for a special dinner–toss apple with dressing.Layer on greens, cheese and pecans.Cover with plastic wrap and put in refrigerator until needed, tossing just before serving.

    • Reviews

  • “i had this at a wonderful restaurant in scottsdale, arizona called “Bloom”.i came home and checked recipezaar and there it was.it is just as good as in the restaurant and i will make it many more times.i have shared it with friends as well.very good salad and so easy to make.”

  • “I made this for a luncheon and everyone wanted therecipe!I used raspberry vinegarette instead ofthe oil and vinegar dressing—-I also used bleucheese instead of athe feta.”

  • “Great recipe. I first made this for thanksgiving dinner and it was a huge hit. 🙂 I have repeatedly done the salad time and time again, it always tastes fantastic!”

  • “wonderful holiday salad!! made for thanksgiving, and making again for christmas because of the rave reviews of my fellow food critics (family)!!! i would reccomend adding craisins, very good. Thank you for the recipe :)”

  • “we all loved it at thanksgiving. i only had romaine and green leaf lettuce. i put pomegranate seeds in it and made a raspberry vinaigrette.”

  • “Yup, the whole family loved it, made it as a salad for Xmas dinner. Great!”

  • “Excellent!My non-salad-eating son had three huge helpings and then some!Will make again, thanks so much for posting.”

  • “It’s interesting that the recipe origin is from a microbrewery – why do they always have the best food? For me, it was all about the pecans, since I had never tried carmelizing nuts before. To get it to work, I had to turn the heat up to medium. It seemed like it took longer than three minutes, but maybe it was just a long three minutes. 🙂 When you think they will never carmelize, it happens, and they are amazing!”

  • “Great!”

  • “I do LOVE this salad!The only change I made was to use balsamic vinegar instead of white vinegar.I thought it would give it a little smoother taste.It was So good I had three helpings!I’ll be making this a lot.Thanks so much!”

  • “Very good!Used blue cheese instead of feta as suggested, and it was incredible!Thank you!”

  • “it took me two trys to make the pecans.I burnt the first batch (we ate them anyway!).Delicious.”

  • “Wow ~ this was wonderful!This recipe is going to find a place on my holiday table this year for sure.The recipe was very to make ~ I made as posted.Thank you so much for posting this delicious recipe!”

  • “Delicious — definitely one of my favorite salads. Also great with dried cranberries (I used orange-flavored Craisins).”

  • “What a great tasting, pretty salad!The salad was very easy to make.I used baby spinach leaves and a romaine leaf mix.”

  • “Oh Sharlene, how very awesome! We made this for some “extra-special” visitors who came for a meeting one evening. We made it with a pinch or two of red pepper flakes added to the sugar, and we added avocados as well. The salad was just wonderful! Thank you for posting, Diane :=)”

  • “I’ve made this recipe several times now and everyone has raved about it.It’s easy and tastes fantastic.Thank you!”

  • “I made this salad last night but used Pepper Jelly Vinaigrette Dressing recipe (58813)-also used bleu cheese.Great blend of flavors! Thanks Sharlene!”

  • “It is like the salad at Bloom’s.Excellent!I’ve also had it with fresh pears and butter lettuce – equally good.Raspberry viniagrette would be good too, I bet.”

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