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
This salad is to die for!!! Totally worth making the almonds ahead….you will be luck to have enough left for another salad! My husband and I both love the salad but can’t stop snacking on the almonds!! Thank you so much. Try it with fresh peaches or nectarines!! Killer.
This is delicious! I also found that the almonds ended up all clumpy. I ended up breaking them apart w/ my hands once it had cooled down. Still tasty though! I didn’t have white balsamic, so I used regular. Also didn’t have any poppy seeds, so omitted that. I think this would taste great w/ goat cheese (chevre) in it.
This was yummy and I will definitely be making it again!
I had the same experience as Renee – my almonds were an abject failure. The caramel clumped up, and wouldn’t spread on the nuts. So it’s now like chunks of caramel with nuts stuck to it. Not the worst thing in the world, but a disappointment for a salad.
Looks delicious!! (I think the sugar amounts may be off. According to Google, 60g is equivalent to 1/4 cup for the dressing, and 100g is roughly equivalent to 1/2 cup for the almonds.) I can’t wait to try this recipe.
I love the salad but have tried twice with the nuts and it clumps and thickens to a crumble as soon as I add the spices and then will not coat the nuts :( any suggestions? Happened both times
It was an amazing salad! I used mixed greens and less sugar for the dressing. I also didn’t want the almonds so I used toasted pecans instead! Wonderful salad, yum! Even my husband ate seconds, and he’s usually not a huge fan of salad:))
Looks wonderful, do you have the nutritional information for this? Thank you!
Made this today for company. Fabulous!
When I googled the sugar conversion it said 1/2 cup, so that is what I used.
This salad dressing was so good. I love that you can get on the internet to find another ingredient if you don’t have something in your cupboard. As for the almond topping, it didn’t do so well, it hardened and there was no way it was going to soften back up, I will buy sugared almonds next time. Loved it, will definately make again.
Still there has been no definite answer to how much sugar as it does not show up in the recipe. Can’t wait to make this!
100g of sugar is about 1/2 cup, right?
I just made the almond, and I cannot stop eating it, it’s wickedly delicious!
Hi, why does my Carmelized candy go into clumps n I can’t undo it;(( ….they burn before it melts like they say:(( what I doing wrong?
Oops! As soon as you say this I immediately see this!
Thanks and sorry! Can’t wait to try it.
Looks delicious!
But where is the recipe for the candied spiced almonds? I’m sure I’m overlooking it. I looked under the search engine on the site but it didn’t come up.
Hi Shannan, the recipe for the almonds is in the general recipe above.
I made this salad and the dressing was so salty we couldn’t eat the salad. I was very sad to have to waste all the lovely greens! If you make this dressing leave out the salt!!