Try This Scrumptious Salad
Newman’s Own: Lite Cranberry Walnut Dressing
This salad will be featuring Newman’s Lite Cranberry Walnut Dressing. A fantastic late summer and fall choice! We chose to pair this dressing with some of our favorite seasonal ingredients.
INGREDIENTS: (makes two salads)
- Baby Arugula – 2 Cups cleaned
- Pomegranate – just the seeds from half of one
- Mushrooms – we used maitake or hen of the woods – 1 bunch broken into smaller pieces (6-10 oz.)
- 1 sprig thyme, 1 clove garlic crushed, 1 T butter
- Seasonal Fruit – 1/2 cup cleaned and dice – we used a combination of peaches and asian pears
- Lemon juice from 1/2 a lemon
- Walnuts – 1/2 cup
- 1 T sugar, 1 pinch cinnamon, 1 pinch cayenne pepper, 1 pinch salt
Recipe Name: Golden Harvest Salad
How to Make It:
For the pomegranate, all you will want to do is cut it in half, and then over a mixing bowl, hold the pomegranate upside down and hit it hard on the back with a metal spoon. This will dislodge the seeds, which are plump with this fruit’s amazing juices that just burst in your mouth when you eat them.
For the mushrooms, we used maitake (also known as hen of the woods). You can use any available mushrooms that you might find at your local market. We broke them down into smaller pieces and made sure they were clean from any noticeable pieces of dirt – note: we don’t wash them in water as mushrooms are very porous and will not cook as well. Heat up a cast iron pan with canola or olive oil, and wait until the oil is very hot or shimmering (just starting to smoke). At this point, add in your mushrooms, and sauté, allowing to caramelize on both sides. When they are well browned, season with salt and pepper, add in the butter, thyme and garlic toss around to infuse for another 15 seconds. Remove mushrooms from pan and let cool on paper towels to drain off excess fat. These are ready to toss into your salad or just eat on the side, as they are DELICIOUS.
For the fruit, We ended up using peaches and asian pears, which are in the height of they season right now. These can be replaced with almost any seasonal fruit: Apples, pears, plums, and nectarines… Just wash them and dice ‘em up. Toss them some lemon juice to prevent oxidation – this will also help season them.
For the walnuts, in a sauté pan on medium heat, toast the walnuts evenly without scorching. When you can smell the nuts, add in the spices and sugar and toss to melt in the sugar. Remove from the pan and allow to cool.
To compose the salad, just mix all these delicious fall ingredients together in a bowl, and toss lightly with Newman’s Lite Cranberry Walnut Dressing- ENJOY!
Courtesy of Chef Alex Garfinkle of AG Catering.