Spinach Salad with Curried Pecans and Apples

This makes for a nice side salad or you could make it a dinner salad like I did and add some chicken. I just added a tablespoon of curry powder to some of the salad dressing and marinated the chicken in that before I baked it. The only thing I changed was what kind of cheese I used, the recipe called for blue cheese but I didn't have any so I used havarti. This was one of the best salads I've had in a long time and I plan on making it again very soon.



For the pecans:

6 ounces pecan halves
2 tbsp melted butter
3 tbsp sugar
1/4 tsp ground ginger
1 tsp curry powder
1/2 tsp salt
a pinch of cayenne pepper

Vinaigrette:
1/3 c cider vinegar
2 tbsp maple syrup
1tbsp dijon mustard
1/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
1/3 c olive oil

To make salad:
1(10 ounce) package baby spinach
1 gala or fuji apple thinly sliced
1 small red onion thinly sliced
1/2 c blue cheese

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. Toss pecans in the melted butter with the remaining ingredients. toss to coat the pecans completely. Spread the nuts on a foil lined baking sheet and bake 10 to 13 minutes. Cool and set aside. You can make these a few days ahead of time and keep them in a airtight container.

To make the vinaigrette put all the ingredients in a jar and shake until combined. The dressing could also be made ahead of time.

Put everything into a bowl. Season the leaves with some sea salt and pepper and toss with 1/4 of the dressing

Source: bakedbree.com