Snappy Salads - Baby Spinach, Red Onion, Orange and Feta Salad with a Sweet Citrus Dressing.

This is a quick post for a snappy salad that I packed for lunch this morning. It’s officially fridge clean-out week after days of entertaining and multiple grocery runs. Let me also add that it’s a “clean eating” week for much the same reasons.
That said, clean eating becomes a real test when you’re staring at leftover pints of ice cream, chocolates, and wine in the fridge—but I was determined to try.

This week’s resolve was simple: pack my lunch as often as possible. This salad turned out to be the easiest option I could throw together using the clean-er items still left in my fridge and pantry. With a little farmer’s market orange marmalade, rice vinegar, and olive oil, I had a sweet citrus dressing ready in minutes. Truly snappy.

Ingredients

• Baby spinach – 3 cups
• Romaine lettuce – 1 cup, chopped
• Mandarin oranges – 2 small, peeled and segmented
• Pecans – ½ cup, chopped
• Feta cheese – 2 tbsp, crumbled
• Red onion – 1 small, thinly sliced

Sweet Citrus Dressing

• Orange marmalade – 1 tbsp
• Rice vinegar (or red wine vinegar) – 1 tsp
• Olive oil – 1 tbsp

Optional:
You can add a splash of fresh orange juice if you don’t have marmalade handy. As mentioned, this was very much a fridge clean-out situation

• Salt and pepper – to taste

Mix all the dressing ingredients with a fork or small whisk until well combined. This makes about ¼ cup, which is perfect for one salad.

Method

Combine all the salad ingredients in a large bowl.

If you’re packing this for lunch, keep the sliced onions and feta in separate containers and mix them in just before eating to keep everything fresh.

Add the dressing, toss gently, and enjoy.