Autumn Salad with Red Grapes, Celery and Almonds

Autumn Salad with Red Grapes, Celery and Almonds

Luscious red grapes and crunchy green celery are featured in a chopped salad that is an eye catching side dish. Serve this salad with home made vegetable soup  and whole wheat toast for a hearty autumn supper. A chopped salad is easy to eat. Whether you are making meals for kids or grownups, consider the ease of using a spoon or salad fork for consuming this salad. Gee, even a spork would work!


Autumn Salad

 
Prepare salad ingredients:

• 2 cups romaine with spines, cut into 1 inch pieces
• 1 cup red grapes, halved and seeded (if necessary)
• 1 stalk celery, chopped into 1/2 to 1 inch pieces
• 1/2 cup almonds, sliced
• 1/4 cup hard Romano cheese, shredded
• OPTIONAL 3 slices bacon, cooked and crumbled

Combine the romaine, grapes and celery. Stir in the almonds and cheese. Toss with Mustard Vinaigrette Dressing (recipe below). If desired, sprinkle bacon pieces on top of salad.

Serves 4-6 as a side salad.



The chopped ingredients for Autumn Salad

Mustard Vinaigrette Dressing

Whisk together:

• 2 tablespoons brown sugar
• 1/4 cup rice vinegar
• 2 tablespoons stone ground mustard
• 1 teaspoon Mrs. Dash seasoning
• several grinds of black pepper

Then whisk in 2 tablespoons of olive oil.

Refrigerate dressing if not using immediately. Set dressing out of refrigerator and bring to room temperature before using. Extend this dressing, if needed, by whisking in 2 or 3 tablespoons of room temperature water.



Autumn Salad in my favorite stainless steel bowl from IKEA
I keep two bowls this size for making salad. The first bowl is for whisking the dressing.
The second bowl is for assembling and serving the salad.
Both go into the dishwasher easily after the meal.

More about this recipe

We've enjoyed red grapes for almost two months now. This salad combines the sweetness of the grapes with the crunch of the celery and romaine. Almonds bring snap to the salad. And the bacon, well, we can always add bacon to our salads, but omitting it makes this a vegetarian side. Use rice vinegar for a lighter flavor in the dressing. Another vinegar that would be good is Heinz Tarragon vinegar. The Heinz vinegar is harder to find at grocery stores. It is in a bottle that is the same shape as their wine vinegar bottle.


Make this into a main meal salad by tearing the romaine instead of chopping it. Divide the torn leaves from a head of romaine onto four plates. Toss the grapes and celery with the dressing. Spoon the dressed grape/celery mixture in the center of each plate. Sprinkle with Romano and almonds and, optionally, bacon.



Copyright 2011
Wanda Hayes Eichler