AMAZING SPINACH SALAD

 This really is the best spinach salad ever! Loaded with sweet + spicy nuts, apples, feta, and bacon, it is amazingly delicious.

This is my most favorite salad. Ever, ever, ever.

I’ve served it for the past two Thanksgivings and it made a guest appearance at Christmas and I make it at least twice a month, sometimes three, and I hoard the leftovers like nobody’s business and I may or may not have literally dreamed about it on occasion.

Why? Because it’s the best spinach salad on the planet. That’s all there is to it. It makes me happy like no other salad ever has (which is probably why you don’t see a lot of green-ish salad recipes on my blog other than this fabulous gourmet green salad that is lovely, too).

I have my friend, Kim, to thank. She comments here (on almost every post!) as Kim in MD and she’s the delightful soul who gave us this awesome pesto bake among other things. She has been a great food mentor and friend to me over the last few years (I’ve been known to call her in desperate menu planning crises).

Everyone needs a Kim in their life. But since I won’t let you have her, instead, I’m offering you this spinach salad.She and I emailed back and forth last year about it and she pretty much spent hours perfecting while I leeched off her hard work and simply made it and ate it.

Made it and ate it.

It’s chock full of everything I love: fresh baby spinach, crisp sweet apple slices, tart dried cranberries, tangy feta cheese, baconbaconbacon, and delicious sweet and spicy caramelized nuts. The combination rocks.

Plus the super simple (we’re talking shake up the ingredients in a jar and call it good) vinaigrette is the perfect compliment to the salad ingredients. I personally prefer the lightest drizzle of dressing to let all the other deliciousness shine but Brian smothers his salad in dressing (as in, have a little salad with your dressing) and vouches for its tastiness, too.

This is the type of salad you absolutely need in your repertoire when you are putting together a dinner-plan-for-company-that-doesn’t-involve-Monday-night-and-hot-dogs. (Although on second thought, I’d totally make this with hot dogs so my kids can fight over those while I sit in a corner enjoying The Best Spinach Salad).

It’s beautiful, delicious and goes well with everything from grilled chicken to lasagna to…well, anything. It receives rave reviews every time I serve it. I’m pretty sure everyone in my geographical neck of the woods  is getting pretty sick of me bringing this as my contribution to any potluck event I’ve been to in the last year.

Make it! Seriously. Just make it. It’s the best spinach salad ever. Like, rockstar good.