My internet was installed yesterday and I’m celebrating by having an internet party! You’re all invited. Well, invited to make this salad that is.
On my last day of work at my previous company, my coworkers took me out to lunch at Arnie’s Restaurant and Bar. It was a beautiful restaurant that sits right on the water’s edge and overlooks Puget Sound. We were blessed with a clear blue, sunny sky the day we went and had the most amazing view of the Olympic mountains.
If you’ve never been to Washington, drop what you’re doing and hightail it over to the Seattle area right now and go check out the Puget Sound views while it’s still summer and you’re bound to have beautiful weather while you’re there (and maybe take the time to do something off this list too while you’re at it).
Alright, I digress.
Back to Arnie’s. Everything sounded wonderful on their menu, and as much as I wanted to try their seafood, I couldn’t help but be drawn to their smoked chicken salad. Apparently I wasn’t the only one wooed by the description of a chicken and fruit salad since three other of my coworkers also ordered the same.
Words can not describe how delicious this salad was. No wait, I take that back. Perfection. Perfection can describe this salad. Sweet, crunchy walnuts, creamy cheese, tender chicken, and juicy strawberries all topped with a drizzle of a honey mustard vinaigrette. I can’t believe I’ve been living in the dark about strawberries in salad. Of course, I had to try my hand at recreating the salad at home.
So, if you’re like me and haven’t thrown some berries into your salad yet, you must make this salad. It’s perfect for summer and even better, it comes together in under five minutes.
Here’s what you’re going to need:
- mixed salad greens
- chicken (you can make it easy on yourself and use rotisserie chicken)
- strawberries
- chopped walnuts
- grated gruyere cheese
- honey mustard vinaigrette (I used Annie’s)
I didn’t put any quantities for the ingredients since it really is a personal taste thing. Add as many or as few strawberries into it as you want!
Alright, so here are the steps to creating your perfect summer salad. It’s a little complicated, so see if you can try and keep up. Step 1, put your salad greens onto the plate. Step 2, put everything else on top.
I love the fact that after I come home from work on a hot, humid summer day, I can be sitting in front of my A.C. unit (set to full blast) enjoying the most perfectly light, refreshing dinner in a matter of a mere minutes.
Serving your salad with an ear of corn is highly recommended, although not required. Bonus points if you wash this down with a cool glass of lemonade. But regardless of how you enjoy this salad, just make sure to get a little bit of everything in each bite!
Oh, and also try to savor each bite since before you know it, your plate will go from looking like this:
To this:
To this!
What summer foods that are in season right now have you been enjoying lately?
Also, catch me up on what’s cool around the internet! My company blocks pretty much every non-work related website, so I’ve been living under a rock for the past month. Are people still using Facebook or did everyone make the switch to Google+? What’s funny on Youtube right now?
