Orange Cranberry Cashew Salad
In general, I have to be in the right mood to eat a salad. Like if I could choose anything in the world to eat, my first choice would not be salad. It’s usually something more like pizza. Just saying. However, Travis and I ate this entire thing one day for lunch and loved it! The orange gives it a fresh citrus flavor, the cranberry is a little sweet and sour, and the cashews are salty and crunchy. YUM! I also have some creamy fresh mozzarella on there. And let’s face it…cheese makes everything better. End of story.
The great thing about this salad is that it’s *super* simple to make but seems *super* fancy. You could totally bring this to a fancy party and fit right in. But you could also make it in 5 minutes while binge watching TV in your sweatpants. It’s your life…I won’t judge. It’s hard to find something appropriate for EVERYTHING. This is it. This is the side dish that is perfect in any situation. You’re welcome.
Talking about fancy, I am not very fancy. Fancy restaurants make me nervous and I usually leave hungry. Well, yesterday Travis and I went to this kind of fancy restaurant for an event with appetizers and such. As soon as we walked in I thought, “Something smells funky.” I mean I wish I spent the time enjoying meeting and talking to people but I mostly thought about how funky it smelled. I’m just being honest here. Anyways, they had some nice flatbread pizza and fancy fries and dips that of course we devoured. Afterwards, I told Travis that the funkiness was definitely from the fries. I thought it was a cheese or something but turns out they were truffle fries.
Now, here’s the difference between me and someone fancy with a refined “palete” (yes, I had to look up how to spell that because I don’t use that word in real life). Turns out, I HATE the smell and taste of truffles. A fancy person would say that’s crazy and I don’t know what’s good. I’m sorry, but I’m not a fan. It must be one of those acquired tastes that only fancy people like. Or maybe I can just blame my heightened sense of smell and taste on the pregnancy. Perhaps I shouldn’t rule out such a supposedly wonderful thing so quickly. So instead I will say that as of today, I am not a fan of truffles, but who knows what will happen in the future.
Anywho, getting back to the salad. Regardless of how refined you palate is, this is a fancy and simple salad that you will love!
- 1 orange
- 1 tablespoon balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 teaspoon mustard
- salt and pepper, to taste
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- Spinach and/or salad greens of your choice
- Dried cranberries
- Cashews
- Fresh Mozzarella cheese
- Cut the skin off the orange with a knife. To do this, I cut the top and bottom of the orange off, then ran my knife around the orange from top to bottom. Make sure to get all the white pith off in this process.
- Using a sharp knife, cut out the orange wedges by cutting just inside the white lines (see image above). This makes nice slices without the pith.
- Squeeze the juice from the leftover orange pith into a bowl. Whisk in the balsamic vinegar, honey, mustard, and salt and pepper.
- Slowly whisk in the olive oil until it comes together.
- In a large salad bowl toss together the salad greens, dried cranberries, cashews, Mozzarella cheese, and a drizzle of the salad dressing, to taste.
