My Go-To Salad Recipe: Tossed Salad with Poppyseed Dressing

This salad is one of my go-to recipes, meaning I’ve made it lots of times and it has gotten enthusiastic thumbs up from family and friends.

I first had it at a bridal shower. I loved it and the people eating around me loved it, so I shamelessly tracked down the hostess to ask for the recipe, and she had it in my hot little hands before I even left the shower. It’s been one of my regular recipes ever since.

Here’s the recipe as it was given to me:

Poppy Seed Salad

• Begin with 6 cups of the salad greens of your choice

Combine with your choice of:

• 1 cup nuts
• 1 cup sliced or diced fruit
• 1 cup cubed cheese

Toss with the following dressing:

• 1. c. salad oil
• 1/2 c. sugar
• 1 t. onion powder
• 1/3 c. white wine vinegar
• 1 dash salt
• 1 t. prepared mustard
• 2 T. poppy seeds

Having now made this dozens of times, here are my notes:

I usually use a combination of romaine and spinach for the greens.

The cheese/fruit/nut combination that the hostess used at the shower was swiss/strawberries/cashews, and that remains my favorite. But I’ve also used various combinations of Monterey Jack, Provalone, apples, dried cherries, pecans, almonds, and walnuts in this salad.

Here are a couple of other suggestions of combinations given to me by the hostess:

• 1 c. pecans, 1 c. raspberries, 1 c. cubed brie
• 1 c. walnuts, 1 c. diced, red apples, 1 c. havarti (great for fall!)

I’ve used both canola oil and this light olive oil to make the dressing. And I sometimes substitute white balsamic vinegar for the white wine vinegar.

We’ve liked it all.

Finally, this recipe makes a lot of dressing. I think the dressing part of the recipe can easily be cut in half, but your mileage may vary.

P.S. Another go-to recipe: Potato-stuffed Bell Peppers

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