This salad is perfect for a quick lunch, a fancy brunch, a lovely side salad or a complete meal with chicken, shrimp or pork tenderloin piled on top. You can add goat cheese, blue cheese or any other fun cheese that strikes your fancy. It’s wonderful with spinach, Romaine, field greens, Bibb lettuce, arugula… did I miss your favorite? Well, it’s great with that too! Feel free to change out the nuts also – don’t have any almonds? Candied Spiced Pecans would be a fabulous switcheroo!
For Valentine’s Day, you could add a sprinkle of crimson pomegranate seeds or how about a scatter of blood orange or ruby red grapefruit wedges? Slivers of mango are beautiful as well as grape halves or sliced crisp apples or pears. Are you starting to get the picture? It’s what I call a Little Black Dress Recipe! Totally adaptable, simple or elegant, dress it up or down depending on the occasion.
The vinaigrette that dresses this delicious salad can be prepared in minutes. I keep a jar in the fridge so we can have a fabulous salad on the spur of the moment with whatever’s in season and/or whatever’s stashed in my fruit/veggie bins!
The recipe below is for my Cranberry-Avocado Salad with Candied Spiced Almonds and Sweet White Balsamic Vinaigrette, but feel free to have fun and adapt according to your tastes, whims, cravings, pantry and budget!
PrintCranberry-Avocado Salad with Candied Spiced Almonds and Sweet White Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Total Time: 55 minutes
- Yield: 6 servings 1x
Description
This vibrant salad combines creamy avocado, tart cranberries, and crunchy candied spiced almonds, all dressed in a sweet white balsamic vinaigrette.
Ingredients
Ingredients for the dressing:
- 1/2 cup (60g) sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 ½ tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1 teaspoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons dried mustard
- 1 tablespoon minced sweet onion
- 1 teaspoon sea salt
- 1 teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- 1/2 cup (120 ml) white balsamic vinegar
- 1/3 cup (70 ml) vegetable oii
- 1/3 cup (70 ml) extra virgin olive oil
Ingredients for the salad:
- 12 ounces (340g) baby spinach, arugula, field greens
- 1 small bunch cilantro, washed and dried, leaves removed whole from stems (discard the stems or use for another recipe)
- 2 medium avocados, peeled and halved
- 1 1/2 cup (115g) dried cranberries
- 1 1/2 cup (115g) Candied Spiced Almonds (see recipe)
Ingredients for the almonds:
- 5 cups (600g) sliced almonds, or a 1 pound package
- cup (100g) sugar
- 3 tablespoons butter
- 2 teaspoons cinnamon
- 1 teaspoon cumin*
- 1-1 ½ teaspoons smoked paprika* – some smoked paprikas are quite hot, if you don’t like “hot”, just use 1 teaspoon and they will be mildly spiced.
- 1 teaspoon vanilla
- sea salt
- The cumin and the smoked paprika give just a hint of mysterious, delicious flavor – even though these are savory spices, these almonds are still wonderful served with sweets like ice cream or yogurt.
Instructions
For the dressing; combine all ingredients in a pint sized glass jar and shake well to dissolve sugar.
For the salad; place greens and cilantro leaves in a large bowl.
- Add avocado and dried cranberries and about 1/4 cup of the dressing and toss gently.
- Scatter candied almonds over salad and sprinkle lightly with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pass extra dressing at the table.
For the almonds:
- place a large sheet of foil on a work surface. Spray with cooking spray or rub a teaspoon of oil over foil with a paper towel.
- Place sugar in a large non-stick sauté pan and heat over medium heat, occasionally tipping and swirling the sugar until it’s all melted into a pale golden syrup.
- Lower heat immediately and add butter, cinnamon, smoked paprika and vanilla. Stir until well combined and all butter is incorporated into the sugar syrup.
- Add the nuts and stir gently to coat. Don’t worry if you have some clumps of caramelized sugar – they will melt as you continute to sauté the almonds. Cover and continue to cook on low, stirring every minute or so until almonds are a delicious golden brown. Watch very carefully as they can go from beautiful to burned very quickly! Turn out onto prepared foil and sprinkle liberally with sea salt. Spread out on foil to cool.
Notes
This salad is highly versatile; feel free to substitute the almonds with pecans or add your favorite cheese like goat or blue cheese. It pairs well with proteins like chicken, shrimp, or pork tenderloin. Store the vinaigrette in the fridge for up to a week. Add seasonal fruits like pomegranate seeds or blood orange wedges for a festive touch.
- Prep Time: 45 minutes
- Cook Time: 10 minutes
- Category: Salad
- Cuisine: American
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 320
- Sugar: 15
- Sodium: 250
- Fat: 24
- Carbohydrates: 25
- Fiber: 4
- Protein: 3
- Cholesterol: 0
Wonderful salad! I’ve made this 3x. This last time, my sugar for the nuts clumped up solid and the butter wouldn’t fold in. So…I made a second batch. I had all the ingredients ready that go into the melted sugar. As soon as the sugar all melted, I put in the butter and the spices, stirring constantly til well mixed. Then I added the vanilla. Perfect. I started the nut cooking/toasting on low, per the recipe. Then I turned it up a bit. And that seemed to help soften the sugar/spice mix so it would stick to the nuts better. Watch carefully so the nuts don’t burn. Takes a bit of time, but well worth it. The candied nuts are awesome! The recipe makes a lot which can be used on ice cream, yogurt, or just plain snacking. Beware: they are addicting! :-)
Nuts are extremely difficult to make. Large nuggets of sugar chunks that never melted. Wasted a bunch of nuts. What a mess.
My sister in law made this salad for a function, and it was so good I decided to make it for my side of the family. Now, everytime we have a family dinner, my dad requests it. It’s super yummy. Although, I can never get the almonds right. I’ve tried more sugar, less almonds. The best I’ve gotten it was with pecans.
YUM! The dressing absolutely makes this salad! As it is what I had in the cupboard I just used plain (non-seasoned) cashews. Simplified the recipe and YUM!! I added grilled chicken and I am currently craving this salad every day. Served it to guests on two occasions to rave reviews. Thanks for the great recipe!
found this recipe on Pintrest and made it the other night for dinner…OMG! it is so good a little time consuming to make the almonds, but well worth the time and effort that I put into making it. I made it for two people and we had it for dinner two nights and I’ve had it for lunch twice as well..
I came across this recipe via pinterest. At first glance, I thought it would be a lot of work. I made the almonds a day in advance and am so thankful I took the time! I would make them again just to snack on! I highly suggest making the almonds and the salad! It was well worth the effort!
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