Recipe 12- Green Apple Salad
I have to start off by saying that this salad is AMAZING!
Everything about it I loved and will more then likely be making this again this week!
When flipping through the pages of Chef Michaels book everything looks amazing, including the salads. I feel like salads could be the less exciting part of many cook books, but NOT this one!
I was a little apprehensive in making this salad as I absolutely despise fruit in salad.
I know I am probably crazy to think that, but I just can't understand the fruit and salad combo.
But hey, this year was a personal challenge to break out of the comfort zone and try new things, so here we go!
To start off, I raided my fridge and cupboards for the ingredients. I actually had most on hand which was nice!
My purchases this week were some cider vinegar & cows creamery extra old cheddar.. which is to DIE FOR!
Chef Michael starts off the recipe by making "cheese toasts"
I cut my multigrain baguette and placed the slices onto a baking sheet. I then spread on some olive oil and then my grated my cheese. Using an extra old cheddar cheese was an excellent choice. You really want the cheese flavour to come through on your toasts, it really adds the the salad nicely.
While my toasts were baking away, I started on my dressing. Now Chef Michael says to put all the ingredients into a jar to shake up the dressing... I could not find one for the life of me.
I improvised and used my large glass measuring cup and a whisk.
Now this mix seemed a little odd for me, but it tasted great!
I gave everything a good hard whisk and it came together into a smooth looking dressing.
15 minutes later I had some wonderful smelling cheese toasts. The smell of these little babies was just divine. I could hardly wait to see how these paired up with the salad.
I then washed my salad mix and "match sticked" my green apples.
Now here is a technique that I have never used. It took some practice to get the hang of it, but I think they turned out well. And I still have all my fingers ;)
Next it was just a matter of assembling everything in a large bowl.
In went my apples, salad mix and sunflower seeds.
I then drizzled the dressing over everything.
I also chopped up my cheese toasts into cubes.
I gave the salad a nice toss and the dressing covered every little bit just beautifully.
This recipe makes the PERFECT amount of dressing. The salad leaves were perfectly coated and thankfully not dripping in dressing, I don't really enjoy that.
As the final touch, I added on my cubed cheese toast.
Now I felt the extreme pressure from my mom, husband and kids as I dug my fork in for that first bite.
They all know very well my strange food aversions and mixing fruit with salad was a 'no-no" for me.
In went the bite.... I was pleasantly surprised how good this tasted.
The first thought that came to mind was my favourite child hood snack provided by my dear "Grandma Rose". My sister and I always had a snack of cut up apples and cubed cheese at her house growing up. Still to this day, its a go to snack for myself and kids. This reminded me completely of that beloved snack.
The cheese compliments the tart green apples and the dressing is so light and fresh that it just makes this salad perfect on the palate. The crunch of the sun flower seeds was also a nice addition.
All in all this salad won me over on the idea of fruit in salad.
I am really looking forward to making this dish a staple salad in our home. Its so easy, quick and satisfying.
Later in the evening, I was getting the little ones off to bed and just before I tucked in my oldest daughter she whispered.. "can you send me some of those toast things for lunch tomorrow?"
Sure enough BOTH kids went to school with a bag of leftover cheese toast cubes in their lunches LOL!
Hope you all give this one a go!
As always my compliments to the chef and cheers to you, my friends!
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