Thanksgiving Salad
Thanksgiving Salad
Lighten up your feast with this Thanksgiving salad. Lettuce greens, crisp apple slices, toasted pecans, creamy gorgonzola, sweet cranberries and savory red onion are tossed in a maple vinaigrette.
We’re in the home stretch with Thanksgiving dinner preparations and if you’re still looking for a side dish that doesn’t take up precious oven space, here it is — Thanksgiving Salad. Fresh, tender spring mix greens are tossed in a maple syrup vinaigrette and topped with sliced apples, toasted pecans, dried cranberries, crumbled gorgonzola cheese, and red onion. There’s something so perfect about that flavor combination this time of year.
While I love adding sliced or chopped apples to salads, I’m always concerned about the browning of the flesh once the apple is cut and exposed to air. The browning doesn’t really affect the flavor of the apple, it’s more of an appearance issue. So, I conducted a little experiment to find out if some apple varieties were more resistant to browning than others. I also tested different anti-browning soaking solutions to find out if some worked better than others.
For test number one, I purchased eight different apple varieties – Cosmic Crisp®, EnvyTM, Gala, Granny Smith, Honeycrisp, Pink Lady, Rave®, and SweeTango®. I thinly sliced them, fanned them out as I would on a salad, and let them sit at room temperature for two hours. Here’s what they looked like after two hours.
I was quite surprised at how well they all did. The Cosmic Crisp® apple had the least amount of browning, followed by the Pink Lady, Honeycrisp, Gala, Granny Smith, Rave®, EnvyTM, and SweeTango®.
For experiment number two, I tested four different anti-browning soaking liquids for the apple slices — plain water, orange juice, pineapple juice, and a honey and water mixture (2 tablespoons honey mixed with 1 cup water). I cut Cosmic Crisp® apples and submerged the slices in each of the liquids for three minutes. After I patted the slices dry with paper towel, I stacked them on top of each other, wrapped them in plastic wrap, and stored them in an airtight container for 24 hours in the refrigerator. Check out these results – they all look fantastic! What surprised me the most is how well plain old water worked at preventing browning.
Two takeaways from my sliced apple experiment:
1. If you’re assembling this salad last minute and you don’t have time to soak the apple slices in an anti-browning solution, pick an apple that resists browning like Cosmic Crisp®, Pink Lady, or Honeycrisp. Additional apples that are less susceptible to browning include Cortland, Ambrosia, Empire, and Ginger Gold.
2. If you want to slice your apples in advance, use any of the soaking liquids mentioned above and follow the storage procedure. Your apple slices will look freshly cut whenever you’re ready to assemble the salad.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Darlene
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THANKSGIVING SALAD
Yield: 10 servings
Serving Size: about 1 cup
Prep: 15 minutes
Ready: 25 minutes
INGREDIENTS
Salad dressing
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar
2 tablespoons neutral oil, such as canola or avocado oil
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
1/2 teaspoon dried tarragon
1/4 teaspoon kosher salt
1/8 teaspoon black pepper
Salad
10-ounce package spring mix lettuce greens, or other type of baby lettuce greens
1 large apple, cut into thin slices (Cosmic Crisp, Pink Lady, or Honeycrisp work well)
1/2 cup toasted pecans or walnuts
1/3 cup crumbled gorgonzola or blue cheese
1/3 cup dried cranberries or dried cherries
1/4 cup thinly sliced red onion
DIRECTIONS
To prepare salad dressing, add maple syrup, vinegar, oil, mustard, tarragon, salt, and pepper to a jar with a tight-fitting lid. Shake well to combine and refrigerate until ready to use.
When ready to serve the salad, place washed and dried lettuce greens in a large bowl. Add all but 2 tablespoons of the dressing and toss to combine. Place tossed salad greens in a serving bowl and top with sliced apples, pecans, gorgonzola cheese, dried cranberries, and onion. Drizzle top of salad with reserved 2 tablespoons dressing and serve.
Cook’s note: Spring mix lettuce greens wilt quickly after the salad dressing is added, so prepare this salad just before serving. Also, if the dressing has been refrigerated and the oil has solidified somewhat, allow the dressing to come to room temperature before adding it to the lettuce greens.
Nutrition Information per Serving
131 Calories, 8 g Total fat, 1 g Saturated fat, 0 g Trans fat, 3 mg Cholesterol, 123 mg Sodium, 13 g Total carbohydrate, 2 g Dietary fiber, 10 g Total sugars, 4 g Added sugars, 2 g Protein, 0 mcg (0%) Vitamin D, 46 mg (4%) Calcium, 0 mg (0%) Iron, 67 mg (2%) Potassium
© 2023 RECIPES MADE HEALTHY BY DARLENE ZIMMERMAN, MS, RD LLC
Chris, it was such a fun experiment - not necessarily super scientific, just really practical. You can also use lemon juice to stop the browning process, but it does add a hint of sourness to the apple slices. I prefer pineapple or orange juice instead. Of course the plain old water option still amazes me!!!
Stacey, I have to add that after I shot the photos of the soaked apple slices, I tossed them all in one container and put them in the fridge. The next day I pulled them out for a snack and I couldn’t believe that they still hadn’t turned brown - so amazing!!!