Thanksgiving Spinach Salad & Sweet Onion Dressing

Debber's Note:

Tangy-sweet dressing--WITHOUT bacon grease!!!--and lots of interesting ingredients not usually found in Spinach Salad. The dressing is WONDERFUL on other types of salads too.

• Total Time: 25 mins
• Prep Time: 25 mins
• Cook Time: 0 mins

Ingredients:

Serves: 6-8

Yield: 1.0 cup

• 2 eggs
• 10 -12 slices bacon
• 1/2 cup slivered almonds
• 2 (8 ounce) bags spinach (see NOTE)
• 1 (6 ounce) can water chestnuts, sliced
• 1 (15 ounce) can bean sprouts
• 1 (6 ounce) can mandarin oranges

Dressing

• 1 cup canola oil
• 1 medium yellow onion, quartered
• 1/8 cup cider vinegar
• 3/4 cup brown sugar, packed
• 1/3 cup catsup
• 1 teaspoon Worcestershire sauce

Directions:

1. Hard-boil two eggs (place in pot of water, bring to a boil; boil 3 minutes, turn off the heat--let sit in hot water 11 minutes, then pour off the water & cover with ice-cold tap water until cooled enough to handle); peel and slice or coarsely chop.
2. While that is working, fry the bacon, crumble into bite-size pieces; set aside.
3. Toast the almonds to a light golden brown (watch carefully so they don't burn).
4. Dump greens into a large serving bowl; set aside.
5. Drain the chestnuts, sprouts and oranges (rinse with sink sprayer -- and let drip while the eggs and bacon are working); set aside.
6. DRESSING: Add all these ingredients to a blender and PULSE whirl until well-mixed (but NOT pulverized---you want to see little flecks of onion in there).
7. Add water chestnuts, sprouts and oranges to the greens.
8. Drizzle dressing lightly over salad; toss gently.
9. Serve salad along with remaining dressing.
10. NOTE: Make one bag spinach, the other bag Romaine or a mixture of something interesting.

Reviews

[Chef #419196]

Served this for thanksgiving and everyone raved over it. I used fresh bean sprouts, they really ad a nice freshness to the salad. The dressing is awesome! My aunt from Chicago was so impressed she asked me for the reciepe. Never got so many compliments on a salad before. Will serve this again for sure!!! Thanks!

[WI Cheesehead]

This was a nice salad. I made a few changes, based on what I had. Left out the oj's, as DH doesn't like fruit in anything but fruit! Used bamboo shoots instead of chestnuts and regular sprouts instead of bean sprouts. The dressing was good, but too much raw onion taste. Maybe next time would try a small red onion or sweet onion.