Strawberry salad

It’s hard to believe but it’s been more than two months since I’ve blogged last time. The reason of my long absence was moving from Poland to the place, from where my husband comes from, Quebec. I arrived to Canada at the beginning of June; however it’s taken us some time to settle in the new place. There are still many things we miss here, however the necessary kitchen appliances are already there, so I can happily start cooking, baking and blogging again. :)

Today’s recipe is a quick and easy salad made with juicy strawberries, crunchy lettuce and walnuts drizzled with delicious strawberry dressing. Even though made with strawberries and honey, the dressing isn’t sweet. The salad is light and refreshing, perfect for warm summer days. I sprinkled my salad with chopped walnuts, but you can also use hazelnuts (either chopped or whole), sunflower seeds, or pumpkin seeds if you like.

Strawberry Salad

Serves 4

head of lettuce (preferably lollo rose, frisée or oak leaf )
250 g strawberries
2 tbsp walnuts
2 tbsp white wine vinegar
4 tbsp extra virgin olive oil
1 tbsp honey
salt
pepper

Wash and dry the lettuce, if the leaves are big, tear them into pieces. Slice half of the strawberries. Toss in the lettuce leaves. Divide the salad into 4 plates. Sprinkle each portion with chopped nuts.

To make the dressing, combine the remaining strawberries with the white wine vinegar, olive oil, honey, salt and pepper in a blender or food processor. Process until smooth. Pour the dressing over the salad.

Print the recipe

Recipe in Polish:
Sałata z truskawkami

Taste & Create

I’ve discovered this delicious salad recipe thanks to Nicole from For the Love of Food blog. Nicole has been hosting a food blog event Taste and Create, in which participants are paired together to try out a recipe from each other's blogs. Nicole has paired me with Johnny from Le Petit Kitchen blog. The blog was created only a month ago, so there weren't many recipes to choose. What’s made the choice even harder is that in most of the recipes there are no exact quantities of ingredients given. I’ve opted for salad as this is the kind of recipe in which you don’t really need exact quantities. Besides, making more salads was one of my New Year’s resolutions this year. Since I haven’t posted even one salad recipe on my blog yet, I thought this food blog event is just a perfect opportunity to start making some. The salad came out really delicious, light and very refreshing. I was actually surprised how well all the different flavors blended together. I’ll definitely make it again :)

Notes to the recipe: The original recipe (which can be found here) asked for blood oranges, but I used mandarin oranges instead; I also omitted the dill and used less lemon juice for the vinaigrette.

Californian Salad with Fruit and Goat Cheese

lettuce
pear
mandarin orange
goat cheese
pistachios, roughly chopped

balsamic vinegar

FOR THE VINAIGRETTE*
lemon juice
olive oil
dill (optional)

1. Heat the balsamic vinegar in a small saucepan over low heat until thick . Remove from the heat and let cool.
2. Tear the lettuce into small pieces. Cut the pears and oranges, crumble the goat cheese.
3. To make the vinaigrette mix olive oil with lemon juice and dill.
4. Place the pears, oranges, crumbled goat cheese, and lettuce in a big bowl and toss gently.
5. Transfer the salad to plates, drizzle with some of the vinaigrette and balsamic vinegar.
6. Garnish with pistachios. Serve.

* I made vinaigreette using 1 part of oil to 4 parts of lemon.

Przepis po polsku:
Sałatka kalifornijska z owocami i kozim serem