Winter Green Salad with Orange Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

This fresh and healthy winter salad recipe with spinach, romaine, mushrooms, apple, and almonds features the best citrusy honey mustard dressing.

‘Tis the season to embrace balance.

It’s the time to do the dance and fancy footwork when toeing the line between giving into each and every one of your holiday mouth cravings (hello to Mom’s homemade fudge) and listening to your head—and often times your bloated belly—and take a side step to the lighter side of everything bright, fresh and joyful that winter’s produce forks over.

Literally.

It bears repeating that salads should never, ever be bastioned to only spring and summer eats. Let the cucumbers and tomatoes wait for their day in the sun because winter is the time to really play with our produce.

This salad is one of my everyday favorites. In fact, it was one of my normal weekday lunches that after I put it together made me thing, “Geez, that’s a great salad. I should make that for the blog sometime.”

Duh.

Why I think that the way I eat on a simple, everyday level isn’t blog worthy astounds me sometimes. Because good food doesn’t have to be fancy, or ironic or always Pinterest perfect. Nope, not at your house or here at mine, either.

This winter salad came about thanks to my partnership this year with DeLallo Foods. Between the varieties of their pasta in my pantry and the packages of DeLallo SaladSavors™ stocked in my fridge, a fresh lunch is the easiest meal I make all day.

About the Recipe:

For this winter salad I pulled a few fresh ingredients from the crisper: a handful of spinach leaves and chopped up a few leaves of romaine. Then I pulled my husband’s secret winter salad weapon out and set to slicing: Fuji apples. No Fuji? Honeycrisp or Jonagold or another tart and crisp apple will do the trick. A few slices of some errant but super fresh white mushrooms and super thin shavings of red onion make a great balance of sweet and bold.

Then the best part, the toppings. I pulled out the BOLD flavored DeLallo SaladSavors™  toppings of dried pears, gorgonzola cheese and toasted almonds. Perfectly appointed for this crisp, fresh salad and I love that they come in portion sizes that are conducive to making smaller salad serving sizes, but with tons of variety thanks to the different flavor packages.

I had some leftover honey sweetened orange and stone ground mustard salad dressing that I had made for a Fried Goat Cheese Salad I was recipe testing. The salad was a winner for sure, but frying goat cheese for my one-man lunch was a bit more intensive than the day desired. The dressing however, is easy to shake together in a glass container and save for the next day’s lunchtime craving.

Instead of those fried goat cheese wedges (*note to self: remember to make them to share soon!) I popped a frozen vegetarian chicken patty in the toaster oven for a little protein and chopped it up on top of the salad. I seriously eat them at least twice a week for lunch. Along with the sliced almonds, they help keep me satiated and push me through my 3 pm snack cravings.

If you try this recipe, please let me know! Leave a comment below, or take a photo and tag me on Instagram or Twitter with #foodiecrush!

5 from 2 votes

Winter Green Salad with Orange Honey Mustard Vinaigrette

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Ingredients 

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For the dressing

• 4 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
• 1 medium orange juiced (about 2 tablespoons)
• 1 tablespoon stone ground mustard
• 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
• 1 teaspoon orange zest
• 1 teaspoon minced shallot
• 1 teaspoon honey
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper

For the Salad

• 2 cups fresh spinach leaves
• 2 cups chopped romaine lettuce
• 4 white button mushrooms sliced
• 1 medium Fuji apple sliced
• Very thinly sliced red onion to taste
• 1 package DeLallo SaladSavors™ Bold Salad Toppings
• Kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Instructions

• Add the salad dressing ingredients to a glass jar with a fitted lid. Shake well to mix and season with more salt or pepper to taste.
• Add the spinach leaves, romaine, mushrooms, apple and red onion to a large serving bowl or divide into 2 shallow dinner bowls if serving as a main meal. Top with DeLallo SaladSavors™ toppings and Orange Honey Mustard Vinaigrette. Season with kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, toss together and serve. *Serve with 2 vegetarian chicken patties, cooked and sliced, if desired.

Make it a great day friends, and cook something good.

XO, Heidi

This post is in partnership with DeLallo Foods. As always, thank you for reading and for supporting companies I partner with, which allows me to create more unique content and recipes for you. All opinions are always my own.  

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