Author: Jennifer at Seasons and Suppers
Celebrate the harvest season with this delicious salad of mixed greens, including kale and watercress, topped with SweeTango apple slices, pear roses, sugar-sautéed fresh cranberries, toasted pecans, sunflower seeds and goat cheese. Top with a fresh SweeTango Apple Vinaigrette.
Ingredients: Apple Vinaigrette
¼ SweeTango apple, peeled, cored and chopped
2 Tbsp. white wine vinegar
1 Tbsp. shallot, chopped
1 ½ tsp. Dijon mustard
1 ½ tsp. honey
Salt and freshly ground pepper, to taste
Instructions
Combine all ingredients in a blender or food processor. Blend until smooth. Set aside, covered on the counter for 15 minutes, to allow the flavors to blend. Re-mix before using. Cover and refrigerate if making ahead.
Ingredients: Salad
1/4 – 1/3 cup pecan halves, toasted
1 cup fresh or frozen cranberries
3 Tbsp. white sugar
1 SweeTango apples, unpeeled, quartered, cored and thinly sliced
1 Bosc Pear, unpeeled, quartered, cored
1/4 – 1/3 cup sunflower seeds
1 cup goat cheese crumbles
Kale Mix Greens
Watercress
Instructions
Add the pecans to a skillet over medium heat. Cook, stirring, until pecans are fragrant and toasted. Remove to a plate to cool. To the same skillet, add the cranberries and 3 Tbsp. of white sugar. Cook, tossing pan regularly, until cranberries are softened, but have not collapsed or burst. Remove skillet from heat and allow cranberries to cool and sit in sugar syrup while you prepare the salad.
Add Kale Mix Greens to bottom of salad bowl of plate. Arrange fresh watercress around the edges. Place 3 or 4 fans of sliced SweeTango apple over-top. Place a spoonful of cranberries next to the apple fan. Add some of the toasted pecans next to the cranberries. Place a pear rose** next to the fanned apples. Sprinkle sunflower seeds over top. Sprinkle evenly with goat cheese crumbles. Drizzle with apple vinaigrette to serve.
**To make the pear roses, take a prepared quarter of the pear and using a vegetable peeler, take a couple of slices off the side edge. Discard these slices. Now start taking even slices from top to bottom (or bottom to top) until you have 7 or 8 slices. Take those sliced and arrange in a straight line, overlapping by about 1/3. Start from one end and begin rolling up the line in to a circle.
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Jennifer is the woman behind the Seasons and Suppers food blog, where she has been sharing recipes for 5 years. She loves simple, seasonal and always delicious food. When she’s not cooking, she is a wife of 32 years and a mom to 2 grown children. She lives on a rural property in the heart of Ontario’s Muskoka region.