This Harvest Salad is full of fresh greens, feta cheese, cranberries, and pecans, topped with a delicious poppyseed vinaigrette. Perfect for fall dinners or Thanksgiving this year!
I love all of the seasonal flavors that this time of the year brings. Hearty pumpkin and apple desserts. Rich and filling casseroles. Slow cooked meats and stews. Everything is so warm, cozy, and comforting. It is so easy to forget to eat our veggies at this time of the year, but this Harvest Salad with Poppyseed Vinaigrette is the perfect way to pack big flavors into a lighter menu option.
Thanksgiving is coming up and everyone has their traditional favorites. While I enjoy those traditional meals, the menu choices are not necessarily my cup of tea. My Mom has been a retail manager for years and has to work on Thanksgiving so we started having a “Fakesgiving” the night before so that she could enjoy the meal. Since I was doing all the cooking, I decided to throw caution to the wind and make everything that I wanted. I dreamed up my ideal Thanksgiving menu and went with that.
Harvest Salad with Poppyseed Vinaigrette
My Thanksgiving menu was definitely untraditional, but definitely just as delicious. We started our meal with this great Harvest Salad. It is light enough that you don’t get filled up before the main event, but delicious enough that you don’t want to skip right over it. The poppyseed vinaigrette is really the showstopper here and couldn’t be easier. All you need is a bottle of poppyseed dressing and a good quality balsamic vinaigrette. You mix equal parts of the two and your dressing is done!
I used feta cheese, dried cranberries, and chopped pecans in my salad, but the mix-in choices are really unlimited here. Diced apple or pear, bleu cheese, or walnuts would all be great. You could also switch up the greens. Arugula or romaine would be good, but I used some organic field greens that are hearty enough to stand up to all the flavors. Change up whatever you’d like, but just don’t skip the dressing!
Are you a traditional or nontraditional type of Thanksgiving cook? Do you make the same menu every year or like to switch it up? I hope you add this salad to your menu this year!
Ingredients
- 16 oz mixed field greens
- 8 oz of crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup coarsely chopped pecans
- 1/3 cup poppyseed dressing
- 1/3 cup balsamic vinaigrette
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together two dressings until well incorporated. Set aside.
- Add all other ingredients to a large salad bowl and toss to combine.
- Right before serving, add dressing and mix well to coat. Use desired amount of dressing. You may not need the entire amount.
Notes
Home Chef Tip: Make this salad ahead of time to cut down on the craziness of Thanksgiving prep time! Assemble the salad ahead of time and mix up the dressing in a separate bowl. Refrigerate the entire thing until dinner time, add the dressing when you're ready, and then serve!
We hope you love this Harvest Salad with Poppyseed Vinaigrette from SoFabFood Contributor, Amanda from Old House to New Home, as much as we do. If you enjoyed this delicious recipe, be sure to visit our Salad Section for more like it. Don’t forget to subscribe to our newsletter so that you never miss a single recipe. For daily recipe inspiration, like us on Facebook, follow us on Pinterest, and stop by our Google+ Community to see all of the amazing recipes our community members are sharing. Enjoy!
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