Description
Winter recipes are often filled with root vegetables. This is their season! And trust me, I love taking advantage of all the root vegetables over the winter. But, sometimes I just get a craving for a fresh salad. This winter salad is perfect!
I used to work at a power plant in New Jersey. Anytime we hosted senior management or visitors from other power plants, we would cater in lunch. One of our go to places Bella Gina’s in Linden. If you’ve never been and happen to be lucky enough to live close to Linden, Bella’s is a must! Bella’s entire menu is absolutely delicious ~ they know how to do Italian!
Our go to order was a mixed salad with cranberries, walnuts, and goat cheese. What made this salad amazing was their homemade salad dressing. I would love to get their recipe because I have never found another salad dressing that comes close to theirs! It had the perfect level of sweetness without being cloying. Half our group loved the salad with shrimp. As I can’t eat shrimp, I always had it with chicken.
I’ve taken this salad to the next level by adding Belgium endives, shallots, and mandarin oranges. If you’ve never had endives in a salad, you absolutely must try them. They add this subtle sweetness that is so delicious. Shallots are the mildest onion and also have a very subtle sweetness to them. I preferred their subtlety over the boldness of red onion. With the oranges, I was tempted to use fresh clementines, but opted for canned mandarin oranges because they’re already cleaned of the membrane and any tough bits.
Because I don’t have Bella Gina’s secret homemade salad dressing, I opted for a homemade balsamic lemon vinaigrette. And it paired really nicely! The chicken I coated in rosemary, sage, and garlic, which is a definite boost up from Bella’s chicken! And the herbs really compliment the salad!
This is definitely filling enough for dinner and the chicken will leave you feeling satiated for the rest of the evening. If you don’t toss all of the salad with the dressing, it will stay crisp enough to have as leftovers for lunch the next day!
If you make this, let me know what you think! And if you ever make it to Bella’s, get their recipe for their salad dressing for me! I don’t live close enough anymore to go get any!
Enjoy!
Ingredients
Chicken
1 lb chicken breast tenders
6 garlic cloves, minced
2 TB fresh rosemary, finely chopped
1 TB fresh sage, finely chopped
2 TBs olive oil
Salad
3 to 4 cups spinach
3 to 4 cups arugula
1 endive, chopped
1 large (or 2 small) shallots, thinly sliced
1 cup craisins
1 cup chopped walnuts
4 oz goat cheese
15 oz can of mandarin oranges, drained
Salad Dressing
½ cup olive oil
½ cup balsamic vinegar
zest & juice of 1 lemon
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper
Instructions
In a small bowl, mix together the garlic, rosemary, and sage. Rub them evenly over all the chicken pieces. In a large frying pan, heat the olive oil over medium heat. Cook the chicken about 3 to 4 minutes per side, or until golden brown and cooked through.
In a small bowl, whisk together the olive oil, balsamic vinegar, lemon juice & zest, and salt and pepper.
In a large bowl, toss together the spinach, arugula, endive, shallots, craisins, walnuts, goat cheese, and mandarin oranges. Toss together with desired amount of dressing. Plate the salad and place chicken pieces on top.
Serve immediately. Enjoy!
Keywords: winter salad, arugula salad, cranberry and goat cheese salad, chicken tender salad, walnut salad, spinach salad