Balsamic Berry Vinaigrette Winter Salad

This salad is delicious and easy. I doubled the dressing since I had 2 Tbs. of strawberry preserves left in the fridge, and I'm glad I did because I used the dressing for other salads afterwards. I served this salad with Eating Well Magazine's Spinach & Feta Strata. I was going to use feta in the salad to go with the strata, but I had to use up some leftover blue cheese, and it was delicious. I did an experiment and froze some fresh pomegranate seeds I had left from another recipe, and they worked great when thawed. I sliced a spectacular Honeycrisp apple and cut those slices in half crosswise for smaller pieces.

This salad is sooo good! I always add white beans to make it more of a meal, I have used a vanilla fig balsamic vinegar, and I’ve made a version with pear too. Keeper!

Replace strawberry preserves with either real strawberries, or raspberties, and whirl it in a small food processor or a blender, or use a stick blender.

I like this recipe. Here are some suggestions I'd make: I used goat cheese. It was delicious but a bit too smooth for this salad. Consider a nice hard blue cheese for a balance of textures. Chop the apple after slicing so pieces are no larger than 1"x1". This size is more manageable for individual bites. Sprinkle the pomegranate after serving. When I tossed the salad, all the pomegranate fell to the bottom, so the first serving had hardly any and the last had way too many. I added about 4 oz of cooked chicken as part of a meal plan. This vastly improved the meal as a whole.

This one was so easy to make and incredibly good. Great combo of flavors and the whole family like it.

So good. This is a winter staple in our house.