Pop­py­seed Spinach Salad

MmMm. This is prob­a­bly my favorite salad, and it is soooooooooo easy. If you ask me, that’s the way cook­ing should be: deli­cious with­out tremen­dous effort.

Col­lect ingre­di­ents and set them aside until you are ready to serve. Be sure to keep dress­ing refridgerated.

1–2 bags spinach, depend­ing on the size of bag. You need enough to fill a medium size salad bowl.

1 large can man­drin oranges (or 2 smaller cans)

1 cup frozen/thawed or fresh ras­ber­ries (Although I must admit that I always add extra. They’re just so stink­ing good!)

1 cup glazed walnuts/pecans– or glaze your own. See the sim­ple recipe at the bot­tom of this post.

Lite­house brand FRESH Pop­py­seed Dress­ing. This can be found near the let­tuce in the pro­duce sec­tion of most gro­cery stores.

Just before serv­ing, pre­pare salad as fol­lows: Set­tle spinach in bowl. Coat with desired amount of Lite­house Pop­py­seed Dress­ing. I don’t like it too thick so I use about 1/3 of a 12fl oz bot­tle. Drain man­drin oranges. Sprin­kle oranges between lay­ers of spinach, sav­ing small amount to top as gar­nish. Do not toss salad or the oranges will end up on the bot­tom. Care­fully sprin­kle ras­ber­ries between lay­ers of spinach, sav­ing enough to top as gar­nish. Care­fully sprin­kle glazed wal­nuts between lay­ers, sav­ing enough to top as gar­nish. Gar­nish top with remain­ing oranges, ras­ber­ries and wal­nuts. If you used frozen/thawed ras­ber­ries, they will imme­di­ately start to mix with the dress­ing turn­ing it a beau­ti­ful red-ish color. Love that! Serve imme­di­ately. Makes four large serv­ings or six medium servings.

To glaze nuts

Pre­heat oven to 350. Cover cookie sheet with tin­foil, grease or spray foil so that nuts will not stick. (You don’t really need the foil. It just makes clean-up faster) Place 2 cups wal­nuts or pecans in quart-size microwave safe dish. Add 1/4 cup water and 1/3 cup sugar. (May add up to 1/2 cup sugar for extra coat­ing, which will make the nuts extra crunchy.) Heat in microwave for 1 minute. Stir. Heat again 1 minute. Stir. Heat again 1 minute. Stir. Repeat until 6 — 8 min­utes of cook­ing has occurred, or sugar caramelizes. Empty nuts onto cook­ing sheet and spread them evenly. Bake 10 min­utes or until nuts are crunchy.

I love this salad so much that I buy large quan­ti­ties of ras­ber­ries when they are in sea­son and freeze them. That way I can enjoy it all year long. By the way, I’m mak­ing this for my Thanks­giv­ing Salad. It’s so pretty too!