A fresh raspberry arugula salad
A fresh raspberry arugula salad
with a berry/citrus/poppy seed vinaigrette!
Sweet berries, crisp greens, a bold cheese, and a tangy vinaigrette is probably one of my favorite salad flavor combinations. It’s not overly sweet and has the contrasting flavors and textures that are necessary to make any salad a really good salad.
This fresh raspberry arugula salad checks all the boxes. There’s peppery arugula, juicy raspberries, tangy blue cheese and a sweet raspberry/citrus/poppy seed vinaigrette that gets emulsified into a thickened, drizzly dressing with just one simple method.
I created this salad recipe over the holidays in partnership with The FeedFeed and Driscoll’s, and I recently remembered that it doesn’t live anywhere on my site. What’s funny is it’s just as appropriate and tasty in the summer as it is on a holiday table (perhaps more appropriate, even?). Since we’re on the cusp of raspberry season, I figured I’d share this one with you as it makes the most of fresh berries in a cool, summertime salad packed with flavor.
You can easily add grilled chicken or salmon on top to turn this into a main meal. And what’s great about this salad combination is that you can customize it with your own favorite berries (raspberries, blackberries, blueberries) and still get amazing results.
Raspberry Arugula Salad with Berry Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
Ingredients
For the salad:
5-6 oz. baby arugula
¾ cup sliced red onion (rinsed and drained to mellow out the flavor)
2-3 Persian or mini cucumbers (chopped and/or cut into rounds)
6-10 oz. fresh raspberries
½ cup toasted pecans or walnuts
½-1 cup blue cheese crumbles (for the tastiest results, buy a good wedge of blue cheese and crumble it yourself)
For the raspberry citrus poppy seed dressing:
½ cup fresh raspberries
1 small orange, juiced
⅓ cup avocado oil
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar (see notes)
1 tablespoon honey (or use liquid monkfruit, stevia drops or liquid allulose to sweeten)
2 teaspoons poppy seeds
1-2 tablespoons heavy cream or coconut milk
Salt, to taste
Instructions
Add the salad ingredients to a large salad bowl (save a little bit of each item for styling the top of the salad later). Toss to combine.
Make the dressing: add all the ingredients except the cream and the poppy seeds to a large mason jar. Use an immersion blender to blend the dressing (this makes it extra creamy). Whisk in the poppy seeds and cream, then add salt to taste.
Style the salad by adding reserved raspberries, cucumbers and onion slices in small clusters on top. Add the nuts and blue cheese.
Drizzle with the dressing or serve it alongside the salad.
Notes
Blue cheese is one of those ingredients that can elicit strong reactions from people, either for or against it. 😉 If you’re not a fan, you can swap it out for crumbled goat cheese or feta, or omit the cheese altogether.
Tip: red onion has an extra strong flavor that you can mellow out by rinsing the onion slices under cool water. Let them drain while you prep the rest of the salad.
The type of vinegar in the dressing is a suggestion. Feel free to swap it out for another type (champagne vinegar, white wine vinegar, apple cider vinegar, etc.). If you use balsamic vinegar, the dressing will have a sweeter flavor and you may not need the honey at all.
The immersion blender (stick blender) is a great way to get the dressing thick and creamy, but it’s not required. You can also mix the dressing ingredients together by placing the lid on the jar and shaking it well.
You can incorporate chopped herbs into the salad by adding fresh mint or fresh basil.
More summery things
If you’re looking for more summer recipes to add to your must-make list….
A few fun things
In case you missed it… a mini-series on low-carb pantry items (I’ll be turning this into a full blog post soon!). Here is Part 2, Part 3 and Part 4.
This isn’t quite a “fun” thing but it’s a really good read on how Google’s recent algorithm changes are affecting the livelihoods of online publishers… and how they also affect all of us who use Google to search.
It’s BBQ season! Here are some tips from Eater on how to jazz up barbecue sauce (scroll down to the section titled Making Them Your Own). I have this keto BBQ sauce recipe you can easily adapt. As for store-bought, I like Ray’s No Sugar Added and Kinder Zero Sugar sauce (both are sweetened with allulose). For an extra “clean” sauce, Noble Made has a lower sugar option.
Until next week!
Abby