Sweet Spinach Salad with Mandarin Oranges and Poppyseed Dressing
This delicious sweet spinach salad with poppyseed dressing is a family favorite! It has craisins or pomegrante seeds, mandarin oranges, red onion, and candied nuts! Perfect for a potluck or side dish.
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I’ve added a new recipe category to my blog for my big family, Sunday night meals! The category will just be “Family“, and you can find it from the top navigation of my site.
Every Sunday night I make dinner for my adult kids, my nieces and nephews, and any other young adult with no where to go for a family meal. We have anywhere from 9-20 people at a dinner. So fun!
It’s my FAVORTE day of the week. I love being in the kitchen all day on Sunday cooking. It’s my favorite past time.
So, I am attempting to compile all the dishes I make regularly and publish them online, since most of them are hand written recipes I’ve been keeping in a binder for 30+ years! I need them accessible to my kids, and to keep track for my future Sunday night dinners. I’ll also keep notes for number of people it will serve as well as the nutrition information!
So, this salad was a side dish to a turkey dinner we had last night.
The Dinner Menu was:
- Turkey,
- homemade dinner rolls,
- This spinach salad with a sweet poppyseed dressing,
- jalapeno poppers and
- chocolate chip cookies.
Scaling this recipe for a large group!
We had 12 people attending! For a side salad, I usually plan 1 cup of salad per person. Which is why I have 12 cups of greens in the recipe below! Add 1 cup of greens for each person at your dinner.
Family Favorite Spinach Salad with Mandarin oranges and candied nuts
Ingredients
Toast the Candied Nuts
- 4 ounces chopped pecans or walnuts
- 1/4 cup butter
- 1/4 cup brown sugar
Salad
- 8 cups spinach
- 4 cups mixed greens
- 1/2 medium red onion chopped
- 1 medium pomegranate or 1 cup craisins
Dressing
- 1/4 cup sugar
- 1/8 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 teaspoon dry mustard
- 1/8 teaspoon salt
- 1/4 cup oil
- 1/2 tablespoon poppyseeds
Instructions
Toast the Candied Nuts
- Melt butter and mix in brown sugar and the nuts. Spread on a cookie sheet, and toast in the oven for 8-10 minutes, stirring occasionally. Watch carefully so they don't burn. Remove from oven and let cool.
Salad
- Mix together the spinach, greens, chopped onion, pomegranate seeds or dried cranberries and nuts.
- Whisk all dressing ingredients together in a bowl and pour over the salad just before serving. Toss to coat.
Nutrition
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