Apple Walnut Salad With Poppy Seed

Salad (serves 2)

4 cups baby spinach
1 Gala apple, thinly sliced
1/4 cup red grapes, halved
1/4 cup celery, diced
1/4 cup toasted walnut pieces
1/4 cup Gorgonzola crumbs

Poppy Seed Dressing (makes 2 cups)

1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp. Dijon mustard
2 tsp. kosher salt
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
2 Tbsp. red onion, finely grated
1 cup olive oil
1 1/2 tsp. poppy seeds.

Salad - in a large salad bowl, combine all ingredients and toss.

Dressing - In a food processor combine sugar, mustard, salt, vinegar and red onions.  While processor is running, add olive oil to emulsify.  Once olive oil is mixed, add poppy seeds.  Pulse once or twice.  Pour into container, store tightly sealed in the refrigerator.  Dressing will keep up to 1 month.

Comments:  As you can see form the picture I made a change or two in the actual salad.  I used Romaine instead of the spinach.  I used Golden Delicious apples, they were on sale.  I didn't include the grapes but added dried cranberries instead and for the cheese I used Blue Cheese which was a little cheaper than the Gorgonzola.  I also added some grilled chicken.   No matter how you prepare your salad, it's the dressing that impressed me the most.  This has to be one of the best Poppy Seed Dressings that I've ever eaten.  This is a salad that I'll be enjoying quite often.  And it doesn't take much to flavor the whole salad.  There was only 1 change that I made in the recipe and that was with the processing.  My small blender wasn't cooperating so I used a shaker which worked with no problems at all.  For my finely grated onion, I have a small grater that I save just for onions.  This grated it super fine and allowed the flavor to flow through the dressing.  For the origin of this recipe visit visit Jessica's site Oregon Transplant.