Spinach Salad with Warm Maple-Mustard Dressing

Warm dressing tossed with spinach, red cabbage and shredded carrots. Best part is that bacon is in there.

As part of the colon-cleansing program of the day, I opted for salad. And what better salad is there to do that job than one with lots of spinach and cabbage and a little bit of bacon. I had to try this one, which was in my latest Cooking Club mag.

I assumed a 6 oz bag of spinach was 6 cups and skipped brushing the finished bacon with syrup and sprinkling it with pepper. Otherwise, I followed the recipe exactly. Click the link below to go to the original recipe at Cooking Club.

Spinach Salad with Warm Maple-Mustard Dressing

6 c baby spinach

2 c very thinly sliced red cabbage

1 c julienned or shredded carrot

1/3 c cider vinegar
1/4 c pure maple syrup
1 tbsp Dijon mustard
3/4 tsp salt
1/4 tsp pepper
8 slices bacon, diced
1 tbsp vegetable oil
3/4 c chopped red onion

Toss spinach, cabbage and carrot in large bowl.


Whisk vinegar, 1/4 cup of the syrup, mustard, salt and 1/8 teaspoon of the pepper in glass measuring cup.


Cook bacon in large skillet over medium heat 5 to 8 minutes or until crisp, stirring frequently.
  

Drain on paper towels. (Remove and discard drippings; reserve skillet.)


Heat oil in same skillet over medium-high heat until hot. Cook onion 1 1/2 to 2 minutes or until softened, stirring frequently.

Stir in vinegar mixture; simmer 1 minute.

 

Pour warm dressing over spinach mixture; toss to coat well. Sprinkle with bacon.

This was sooo dayum good! Both Rodney and I wolfed it down; I mean, no messin' around eating. I really liked that the dressing was just enough to wet the vegetables without any excess pooling at the bottom of the bowl. Quantity was perfect. Plus there was no slick-lip feel. Mmm, yeah, we're going to have a lot of this salad in the future.

Cost:

• spinach: $1.99
• red cabbage: $0.50
• bacon: $1
• red onion: $0.25

Total: $3.74 but let's round up to $4 to assume cost of the other stuff like pepper. I'm guessing three servings, making each serving $1.25.

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How good was this salad? Rodney ate what was left today, which is highly atypical. We're definitely having this salad repeatedly in the future.