Pop Quiz: Shredded Coconut or snow?
Answer: Shredded coconut
……just joking!
It’s snow. We had our first dusting of snow today and it made for a nice backdrop for a few photos.
The snow also made for a near-death experience while carrying the camera, tripod, plate, and salad dressing across the slippery deck. This may have been due to wearing Eric’s Size XXL Crocs… Or at least they felt that big on my small feet!
Anyways, back to this dressing. I’m in love with it. That’s really all there is to say.
I’ve wanted to make a fall-inspired salad for a long time now. I made one back in September, but I just couldn’t get the dressing right. For some weird reason, I got stuck on making a cinnamon-spiced almond butter dressing, but sadly it didn’t live up to the dream. Eric and I both thought it just tasted all kinds of wrong. I think he may have gagged. bahaha.
I was back at it yesterday and I’m really happy with how this salad turned out!
This time, I was stuck on a cranberry-orange dressing. I ended up using frozen cranberries, maple syrup, apple cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, fresh clementine juice, kosher salt, freshly ground pepper, and Dijon mustard for the dressing.
You can use fresh or frozen cranberries and any type of orange juice you prefer. Fresh is always nice if you have it, but you can use 100% pure orange juice from a carton too. I used some clementines because we had a big crate to use up.
Start by cooking the cranberries in a pot along with the maple syrup and vinegar. Cook them over low-medium heat for about 7-10 minutes, until they burst. They will look like this:
Dear Santa, please bring me new pots. I’ll make you chocolate chip cookies. Love, me.
Then I added this cooked cranberry mixture into my blender and blended it along with the rest of the ingredients. The result is a gorgeous berry coloured salad dressing that is sweet with a light tangy aftertaste.
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Cranberry Apple Orange Vinaigrette
Cranberry, maple, apple, and clementine make one lovely stand-out holiday dressing. This festive cranberry dressing is sweet with a light tangy aftertaste. Feel free to use more or less maple syrup to adjust to your own taste buds. You can also use any type of sweet citrus that you prefer.
Yield: just over 1 and 1/4 cups
Ingredients:
- 1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
- 1/4 cup + 2 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1/4 cup pure maple syrup, or adjust to taste
- 1.5 tsp Dijon mustard
- 1/2 cup + 1 tbsp fresh clementine or orange juice (or use bottled)
- 2 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt, or to taste
- Freshly ground black pepper
1. In a medium pot, heat the cranberries, maple syrup, and vinegar over medium heat until the cranberries burst, about 7-10 mins.
2. Slightly cool cranberry mixture and place in a blender along with the rest of the ingredients (except salt and pepper). Blend until smooth. Now add salt, 1/4 tsp at a time, to taste. Blend again. Adjust other ingredients to taste if necessary. You may want more maple syrup than I used. I liked this dressing with a bit of tart aftertaste to really let the cranberries shine. Place in fridge to chill. Should keep in fridge in an air-tight container for up to 5-7 days.
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I had a lot of fun with this salad! Man, it feels like I haven’t had much colour in my photography lately so this salad was welcomed.
Pop Quiz: What backdrop do you like best?
Green:
Orange:
Blue:
White:
Holiday #1
Holiday #2
I bought some fabric at Fabricland this past weekend. ;)
I think my favourite backdrop in this photo is the royal blue colour.
Back to the salad. I get distracted by bright colours obviously!
Holiday Salad with Apple, Pear, Cranberry, and Walnuts
Who says holiday dinners have to be unhealthy? Fuel up on this for more energy to kick Uncle Joe’s butt!
Serves: 6-8
Ingredients:
- 1 large box of organic mixed greens (or greens of choice)
- 1 large apple, chopped
- 1 large pear, chopped
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup chopped walnuts, lightly toasted
- 1/4 cup pepita seeds, optional
- Cranberry dressing from above
1. Add washed and dried greens into a large salad bowl. Add toppings and serve. Drizzle with cranberry vinaigrette.
You know I got all fancy pants on you…
This dressing is the best for fancy pants designs on the side of the plate. You know you want to!
Love, the fancy pants who wears size XXL Crocs
Green and Holiday #1! Holiday #2 is a bit of a busy print for my eyes, but they’re all awesome. I quite like the simple white background too.
I love that you did a seasonal salad – I hate when people just stop eating salads after summer, I love them year-round!
I like white or holiday 1!
That salad looks delish!
These are probably my favorite salads. Pairing berries with bitter greens is such a luscious combination, especially with sliced apples. Mmm!
DeFinitely holiday #2.
I like the Holiday #2 because it sort of mimics cranberries in the background, but also the blue for the bright pop of a different color. The dressing sounds delicious! I’ve been seriously craving cranberries lately.
This looks delicious! I can’t wait to try it!
I like the blue!
Great idea! My mom’s homemade cranberry sauce is great on Thanksgiving – this extends those flavors to “every day” meals, too :)
By the way, I just took my first trip to a Fortino’s in Ancaster, ON a few weeks ago – I WISH we had the President’s Choice brand in the States!
I love orange-y vineigrettes! I fell in love with an orange poppy seed vinaigrette from a soup/salad buffet restaurant here. :D I’ll make sure to give this a try~AND I was wondering what to do with my cranberries from last year! haha. Wait, perhaps I should save it for this Thanksgiving’s cran sauce? Hope you have a beautiful day Angela~ Oh, and I like Holiday #1
i like the orange, blue, and holiday 2!!!
can’t WAIT to make this orange cranberry vinaigrette! my mom will love it!! :)
Fruit salads are the best! The dressing looks amazing. And everything is so bright and beautiful!
I love seeing snow in your pictures! Being that I live in Los Angeles, I don’t see snow very often :) Thanks for sharing these lovely recipes…the salads look very colorful and I love that they’re full of healthy ingredients!
This is my kinda salad and MUST to be on our thanksgiving table!
Tough choice, but I like white and Holiday #2
That dressing looks like a beet juice drink or something! Beautiful color! I can’t believe you had snow already. Living in California my kids still have never seen snow…sad! But we’re beachy people so unless I have to be in the snow, I’m not driving to find it.
I love the royal blue! Really makes everything POP! Can’t wait to try the recipe! I love your site and I will be one of the first in line to buy your cookbook!
Orange and white are my favorite’s for the photo!
Yum! This looks tangy and light and just plain good. P.S.- how do you insert the text on your photos? Do you do that in Lightroom? Thanks!
Sounds so amazing! I can’t wait to try it
This looks so good – may bring it to Thanksgiving dinner- maybe others would try it too. I love the holiday 1 …and the orange. (until next week then I will not be into orange – just green and red and all things Christmas!:-)
so I guess this dressing fits the bill for December too (it IS red and all!) :-)
This has nothing to do with your dressing(which looks amazing by the way), but i just made your chocolate chip banana oat cake and it is delicious!!
I’m happy to hear that!
Sounds delicious! I think the orange backdrop is my fave :)