When you think of fall you think of definitive sights, smells and flavors.  Maybe you think of  colorful leaves falling on your lawn.  Perhaps you think of the fresh smell of cooler morning air or piles of burning leaves.  We think of the distinct flavors of pumpkins and apples.

We are back this week with a great fall salad that will have your mouth enjoying a bountiful harvest.  Our salad is made with hard cider dressing, which goes well with the flavors of the season.  We occasionally like to drink a hard cider.  It has a crisp refreshing taste that you can’t get with a beer or a glass of wine.  Our favorite hard cider is Angry Orchard, so we used Angry Orchard in our dressing recipe.

We served our salad with a nice pork chop that Craig cooked on the grill, but this salad can also stand its own with a hearty steak or with grilled strips of chicken.

To make this salad we used mixed greens as the base.  We sprinkled chopped apples,  chopped pears, dried cranberries, and pumpkin seeds over the top with a few thinly sliced onions.  We topped the salad off with our special blended hard cider dressing made of olive oil, dry mustard, brown sugar, hard apple cider, salt and pepper.

If you are viewing this post in your email, visit our website for a complete printable version of the recipe.

Autumn Salad with Hard Cider Dressing

Ingredients

• 1 package of mixed baby spring mix lettuce
• 2 chopped apples
• 2 chopped pears
• 1/4 cup dried cranberries
• 1/4 cup raw pumpkin seeds
• thinly sliced red onions
• Dressing:
• 1 T olive oil
• 1 tsp. dry mustard
• 2 tsp. brown sugar
• 1/4 c. hard apple cider
• 1/2 tsp. salt
• 1/4 tsp. black pepper

Instructions

1. Place lettuce, chopped apples and chopped pears in a large salad bowl.
2. Sprinkle pumpkin seeds and dried cranberries on top.
3. Add thinly sliced onions to salad.
4. Make dressing by combining olive oil, mustard, brown sugar, apple cider, salt and pepper.
5. Whisk vigorously until combined.
6. Drizzle over salad and serve.

This salad is easy to make and easy to eat.  Try it this weekend with your favorite fall grilled meat and let us know what you think!  We are going to make a few Rojos and sit by our chiminea this weekend.  What will you be doing?