Fall Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Hi everyone, Heather here from Food Lovin’ Family with a delicious fall salad with warm bacon vinaigrette.

Fall is by far my favorite time of year and I love all of the food and flavors that come with the season. One of our family traditions in the fall is taking a hayride out to the apple orchards and picking different varieties of apples to bring home. There are so many wonderful ways to use apples from pies, to cakes and muffins. One of my favorite ways to us apples is adding them in a salad.

This Fall Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette really highlights autumn flavors with Honeycrisp apples, pecans, dried cranberries, blue cheese and an oh so tasty warm bacon vinaigrette dressing. The combination of the crisp apples, crunchy pecans and tangy blue cheese is AMAZING! If blue cheese is not your thing, substitute crumbled feta or goat cheese.

The warm bacon vinaigrette really makes this salad something special. I like to cook my bacon in a large pan over medium heat so that it cooks nice and even. Once the bacon is cooked, remove from the pan and place on some paper towels to drain. Make sure to keep the leftover grease in the pan for the dressing.

Remove three tablespoons of bacon grease from the pan and set it aside. At this point, place the lettuce, spinach, chopped apples, pecans, blue cheese, chopped bacon and dried cranberries in a salad bowl. I use bagged baby spinach and bagged butter lettuce for convenience.

Now for the dressing. Heat a small saucepan over medium heat. Pour in the reserved bacon grease and whisk in sugar, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard and a little salt. Let it heat up for 3-5 minutes so it is nice and warm.

Pour the dressing over the salad and toss. All of the different textures, flavors and temperatures is pure yumminess!

Yield: 6

Fall Salad with Warm Bacon Vinaigrette

Prep Time:30 minutes

You’ll love this hearty salad with its autumn flavors! It’s packed full of goodness with Honeycrisp apples, pecans, dried cranberries, blue cheese and an oh so tasty warm bacon vinaigrette dressing.

Print Recipe

Ingredients:

• 1 large HoneyCrisp apple cut into 1/2 inch cubes
• 1/2 cup dried cranberries
• 3/4 cup chopped pecans
• 1/2 cup crumbled blue cheese
• 8 pieces of bacon
• 1 (5 oz) bag baby spinach
• 1 (5 oz) bag butter lettuce or Romaine lettuce
• 3 tablespoons reserved bacon grease
• 3 tablespoons red wine vinegar
• 2 teaspoons sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1/4 teaspoon salt

Directions:

1. Cook bacon until crispy. Remove and place on paper towel. Chop bacon for salad. Take out 3 tablespoons bacon grease and set aside.
2. Add 3 tablespoons bacon grease, red wine vinegar, sugar, salt and mustard to small saucepan over medium heat. Whisk ingredients together and heat for 3-5 minutes.
3. Add spinach and lettuce to a large bowl. Top with pecans, chopped bacon, dried cranberries, blue cheese and apples. Pour warm dressing over salad and serve.