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Temperatures outside are hitting the 90s and the idea of heating up our oven or cooking over a hot stove does not sound appealing at all. When I ran across beautiful spring greens peppered with pansy flowers at the local farmer’s market I knew a delicious salad would be in my future. I paired the greens and edible flowers with Oregon blackberries, honey goat cheese, honey baked walnuts and blackberry vinaigrette. The blackberry and edible flower salad was the perfect accompaniment to a baked salmon.

This post is in partnership with Oregon Berries. All opinions are my own. About Oregon Berries: The Oregon Raspberry & Blackberry Commission focuses on promoting caneberries to multiple audiences, and supports Oregon berry farmers by fostering plant research and farming education initiatives. Find Oregon Berry brands on the Oregon Berries website! 

Blackberry and Edible Flower Salad | A Well Crafted Party

Isn’t it beautiful? There is just something about beautiful food that makes it just that much more delicious. This salad was probably the best salad I’ve ever made. Even my kids ate it well. I sourced much of my ingredients from the local farmer’s market, but you can certainly find similar ingredients in your supermarket. Not all supermarkets carry edible flowers or microgreens, but I’ve been lucky to find them in natural food stores and specialty markets. Below I share a little bit about the ingredients that I chose to use and possible substitutions, followed by the recipe.

Greens: I used farmer’s market greens and pea shoot micro greens. You can use your favorite spring greens to recreate this salad, though, I’d stay away from too many bitter leaves such as arugula. This salad needs the sweetness that arugula (a favorite green of mine) just doesn’t have.  the pea shoot micro greens give a sweet pea-flavor to the salad. It can certainly be made without, but we thought it was a nice touch in the flavor profile.

Edible Flowers: I chose pansies for this salad because they are not strong in flavor, but look so pretty! Pansies flavor is super mild, slightly sweet, and almost mint-like. Many other edible flowers could also work in this salad such as borage blossoms or violets.

Blackberries: As I am working with Oregon Berries, I chose fresh Oregon blackberries for this salad. I used frozen Oregon Blackberries to create the vinaigrette. You can find Oregon blackberries at many grocery stores throughout the berry season. Thankfully, you can often find them in the freezer section! I often find berries from Stahlbush Island Farms. Find other Oregon Berry brands on the Oregon Berries website.

Honey Goat Cheese: My favorite honey goat cheese is found at Trader Joes. Don’t have one nearby? Just mix goat cheese and honey together for a similar flavor.

Honey Walnuts: You can absolutely substitute a candied walnut here, but I liked the more subtle flavor of honey walnuts and they are super simple to make. I cover raw walnuts in honey and put them on a parchment sheet covered baking pan. I then roast in the oven at 350 for about 5 minutes. Do watch the walnuts as they can burn fairly quickly.

Blackberry Vinaigrette: You can substitute a raspberry vinaigrette from the store, but it is super easy to make your own vinaigrette and the blackberry flavor that this one imparts really makes for a delicious dressing!

Blackberry and Edible Flower Salad | A Well Crafted Party

The following blackberry and edible salad measurements are optional. You can build this salad to your taste and to your ingredient set. That is the best part about salads, in my opinion, you can really get such inspiration from recipes, but then create something that is truly unique to your tastes.

Blackberry and Edible Flower Salad with Honey Goat Cheese

Makes 1 large salad which could be enough for two dinner sized portions or four side-sized portions

Ingredients: 

  • 7 cups of spring greens
  • 1 cup of pea shoot micro greens
  • 12-18 pansy flowers
  • 1/4 cup of honey goat cheese pulled into small chunks
  • 1/2 cup of honey walnuts
  • 1 pint of fresh Oregon blackberries, rinsed
  • Blackberry Vinaigrette (keep scrolling for recipe)

Directions: 

  1. Rinse all greens and dry well. Be careful not to bruise the greens in the rinsing/drying process. I tend to use a salad spinner with a paper towel in it to spin off the water after rinsing.
  2. Toss the spring greens and micro greens together in your serving bowl.
  3. Disperse the honey walnuts, blackberries, and honey goat cheese throughout the salad.
  4. Top with pansy flowers.
  5. You can pre-dress the salad, but I prefer to serve the dressing on the side and allow everyone to dress their own portion. The dressing will weigh down the pansy flowers if you pre-dress and some people prefer less dressing while others prefer more.

Blackberry and Edible Flower Salad | A Well Crafted Party

Blackberry Vinaigrette

This recipe makes 8 oz of dressing. You’ll need a small saucepan and fine mesh sieve to create this dressing.

Ingredients: 

  • 1 cup of Blackberries (frozen works best)
  • 1/4 cup granulated sugar
  • 1/8 cup of water
  • 1 Tablespoon of honey
  • freshly squeezed juice of 1/2 lemon
  • 1/2 cup of olive oil
  • 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar
  • Salt & Pepper

Directions:

  1. Put the blackberries, water, and sugar into a small saucepan and cook over medium-low heat on a stovetop. Stir occasionally. Cook approximately 10 minutes, or when the blackberries have been cooked down.
  2. Strain the blackberry mixture through a fine-mesh sieve saving the liquid.
  3. Mix 1/4 cup of the blackberry syrup, with the juice of 1/2 lemon, 1/2 cup of olive oil, tablespoon of honey, and 1/4 cup of apple cider vinegar. Shake the mixture well. Add salt and pepper to taste, shaking well in between additions of seasoning.

Blackberry and Edible Flower Salad | A Well Crafted Party

 

I don’t host Thanksgiving. Instead, I’m very happy to be attending a Thanksgiving with friends and family where everyone brings a dish to share and everyone is an AMAZING cook. I tend to do a lot of parties around this time of year so I don’t have a ton of energy to put into making something super involved for the holiday. Which means, typically, every year I’m bringing the potatoes and cranberry sauce. If those are the only two things I’m responsible for then I’m going to make them DELISH.

Cranberry sauce is often an afterthought to the Thanksgiving meal. However, a great cranberry sauce can elevate a turkey quite well. I have three fall back cranberry sauces that I love to make. Some years, when feeling extra on top of it, I’ll bring all three so guests can have their choice.

Cranberry Sauce for Thanksgiving | A Well Crafted Party

 

Traditional Cranberry Sauce

A traditional cranberry sauce is SO easy to make. You need a sauce pan, cranberries, orange juice, and sugar to make this sauce. Occasionally I’ll add in something like a cherry or orange liquor to give it a bit of a kick.

Ingredients:

  • 1 12 oz bag of cranberries
  • freshly squeezed juice of one large orange
  • 1 cup sugar
  • (Optional) 1 Tablespoon orange or cherry liquor

Directions:

Put all of the ingredients in a sauce pan and cook on medium heat stirring occasionally so the sugar doesn’t burn. Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until your berries are bursting and the sauce has thickened a bit. The sauce will further thicken once cooled. Serve warm or chilled. It will be extremely hot once finished so wait until it has cooled before tasting. If you feel that your sauce is too thick you can thin a bit with water.

Apple and Pomegranate Cranberry Sauce

Sometimes I want a little more texture to my cranberry sauce. Sweet apples are a great contrast to the tartness of cranberries.

Ingredients:

  • 1 12 oz bag of cranberries
  • 2 fuji apples diced (or other favorite sweeter apple)
  • seeds of 1 pomegranate + any residual juices
  • 1 cup sugar
  • freshly squeezed juice of two Meyer lemons

Directions:

Put all ingredients except for you pomegranate seeds into a sauce pan. Cook on medium heat, stirring occasionally so the sugar doesn’t burn. Cook for approximately 10 minutes or until you berries are bursting a bit and you can put a fork through your apple easily. Add in pomegranate seeds and juice and stir to incorporate. Chill. Serve Chilled.

Cranberry Salsa

This rendition of cranberry sauce is my favorite and is perfect on a leftover turkey sandwich. I tend to like the spicy things in life and will always opt for jalapeño when asked, so if you are similar in your flavor profile think about adding this to you Thanksgiving menu.

Ingredients:

  • 1 120z bag of cranberries
  • 1 to 2 jalapeños seeded (depending on how spicy you want your salsa)
  • 1/4 cup sugar
  • Juice of two large limes
  • 1/2 red onion diced
  • 1 small bunch of cilantro (this is according to taste. I think I had about 1 tablespoon in mine because I don’t tend to love a lot of cilantro.)

Directions:

  1. In a bowl mix your sugar and lime juice together until the sugar has dissolved.
  2. Put the cranberries, jalapeños, red onion, and cilantro to a food processor and pulse until incorporated.
  3. Add the cranberry mixture to your lime and sugar mixture. Mix and let sit in fridge covered for 4 hours. The lime juice will soften the cranberries a bit.

These days you rarely see me in the kitchen anymore. My husband has been taking up most of the kitchen duties due to the combination of a killer work commute and the pregnancy. The few days a week that I decide to venture in to make something I either way over do it and create a 9 course meal based on pregnancy cravings, or I choose to go with super quick and simple dinners that I can throw together in less than half an hour. This recipe is the second of the two. I paired this super quick and easy classic wedge salad with a simple (and delicious) stuffed ravioli dish. However, the wedge salad can be a meal in its own right if you are just wanting to put together a delicious and quick Summer meal.

Wedge Salad Recipe

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Variations on the Wedge Salad

Fun variations on a wedge salad:

  • — Change out the bacon for some lovely crisp chorizo for a flavorful variation on the classic. Try using a smoked bacon or cured Italian meat for another twist.
  • — Add a little Worcestershire sauce to your blue cheese dressing.
  • — Substitute butter milk for the milk and leave out the white vinegar for a tangier dressing.
  • — Change out the lettuce for a more nutritious variation… though, I am a traditionalist when it comes to the lettuce for a wedge salad. I rarely ever eat iceberg lettuce, but when I do it is usually covered in blue cheese and bacon!
  • — Serve miniature versions of this as a side at a party or perhaps a build your own wedge salad bar with a variety of fun toppings.

You can also use a store bought blue cheese dressing for this recipe to make it even simpler. I just happen to like the flavor a freshly made blue cheese dressing!


 

This post was created in collaboration with Grocery Outlet. All opinions are my own. Thank you for reading and sharing posts that are created in partnership with brands that help support this blog.Grocery Outlet operates 210+ stores in California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Pennsylvania, and Washington.Visit the Grocery Outlet website to find a store near you and sign up for notifications when their new ad comes out!