Written By Miranda Regalado
Christmas is here, and one of the best things that come along with it is… the food. Just joking! It’s getting together with family and friends—to eat, yes, let’s be honest, we are big fans of the holidays because we get to enjoy our favorite dishes. Today, I want us to talk about one of everyone’s beloved side dishes: The Holiday Honeycrisp Salad. The reason why I believe many of us enjoy this salad is because it combines the freshness of greens and fruity flavours with a nice tangy punch to mix it all up.
If you want to enjoy it this holiday, here come the ingredients: three medium Honeycrisp apples, thinly sliced (before you peel them, remember many of the benefits and antioxidants are in the skin of the apple), 12 ounces of mixed greens (I highly encourage including spinach), 1 cup of pecans (it’s nice to glaze them with maple syrup), ½ cup of dried cranberries (another incredible source of antioxidants and vitamins), 4 ounces of blue cheese (you can actually exchange it for feta cheese for a milder flavour, and less fat and sodium). Finally, for the dressing, you’ll need extra-virgin olive oil, apple cider vinegar, unsweetened apple juice or apple cider, 1-2 tablespoons of honey, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. And for that last part, we measure with our heart. Another tip is to toss the apple slices with lemon juice to prevent them from browning.
This dish is so delightful and fairly easy to make; once we have sliced the apple, it’s mostly about tossing the ingredients together. But I wanted to highlight how these ingredients come in so handy for us, especially in winter. These fruits are red, and do you know what that means? Flavonoids, responsible for their pigmentation, but also one of the most powerful antioxidants, and among the benefits experts attribute to them, we have: heart health, cancer prevention, UTI prevention, immune system boosting, and many more. This is only one way in which we could live a life free of chronic diseases, or at least to improve our health in combination with medical treatment.
I hope you enjoy this recipe, but also have a wonderful time. Happy holidays! We will get together next year to continue exploring how our favourite dishes and ingredients can benefit our health and make our lives better.
