This beautiful fall salad is inspired by a combination of many Pinterest boards. Don't just ya just love Pinterest? This salad is chuck full of all the fall ingredients we LOVE! Apples, Squash, Kale make this a unique and bountiful salad. Remember that you can easily sub out any ingredient to accommodate your likes or dislikes.
For example, you can use a different cheese for the goat cheese or maybe sweet potatoes for the butternut squash. Not a fan of kale, ok use romaine, spinach or even cabbage!
Ingredients:
Salad
- 2 cups kale, chopped
- 2 cups baby spinach
- 1/2 small apple diced
- 1 thin slice red onion
- 1/2 -1 cup roasted butternut squash
- 1/2 cup cooked chicken (can easily sub out or omit)
- 1/4 cup walnuts (or your nut of choice, or omit)
- 1 oz goat cheese
- 2-3 tbsp maple bacon dressing (see below dressing)
- salt and pepper to taste
Assembly:
One large bowl, add the kale and 1 tbsp dressing then get your hands dirty and massage the kale! This helps to break down the kale to make it a bit softer and easier to digest. I let it sit for about 15 minutes then add all the remaining ingredients and a little more dressing. This is a dinner size salad for one or a good size salad for lunch. I personally eat this to myself!
Dressing:
- 1 cup olive oil
- 1/3 white wine vinegar (or your vinegar of choice)
- 3 pieces of bacon chopped and cooked (keep the drippings)
- 2 tbsp bacon grease from above
- 1 1/2 tsp of dijon mustard
- 2 tbsp real maple syrup
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/4 tsp pepper
Mixing: Cooked chopped bacon on the stovetop over medium heat until crispy. Reserve the grease. In a wide mouth mason jar add all the ingredients. Then using an emersion blender stick, mix away! Feel free to add more maple if you like sweeter or take away a like vinegar if too tart. Play with the flavors! Put leftover dressing refrigerator for at least a week.