Spinach Salad + Homemade Dressing

Do you have any family recipes that you love to enjoy at your family gatherings?  Growing up, we would celebrate birthdays and holidays with all of my extended family.  Those celebrations are some of my favorite memories of my childhood.  I loved seeing my cousins and catching up with aunts and uncles.  One of the activities we would always have during these celebrations was sitting down to a big family meal.  Each of the adults had a special dish they would bring to the table and one of those dishes was a Spinach Salad that my aunt would bring.

As a child I was not a fan of this Spinach Salad, in fact none of the kids were but the adults were fine with that because it left more for them to enjoy.  I distinctly remember the giant silver bowl that my aunt would bring the salad in and as it was passed around the dinner table the looks of disgust that the kids gave has me laughing now.

As you might have guessed, as us kids grew up we LOVED that Spinach Salad and the adults hated that we wanted seconds!  A few weeks ago before the holidays Jeremy and I went to a holiday gathering with friends.  I was asked to bring a big salad.  I went back and forth about what kind of salad to bring, keep in mind this was during the time that all of that Romaine was recalled.  Ugh!  And then it dawned on me, I have never made the famous Spinach Salad!  So, I asked for the recipe and it was a hit.  I am super excited to share this yummy recipe with you and I hope that you give it a try at your next gathering!

Spinach Salad + Homemade Dressing

Ingredients:
One bag of fresh spinach – washed
4 hard boiled eggs – sliced
4 ounce can of mandarin oranges – drained
5 slices of crisp bacon – crumbled
1 cup vegetable oil
1/4 cup white vinegar
1/4 cup chopped onion
1/4 cup sugar (or less)
1/3 cup Ketchup
1 tsp soy sauce

Directions:

1. To prepare the dressing you will need a blender.  Begin by chopping up the onion.

2. Place onion, vegetable oil, vinegar, sugar, Ketchup, and soy sauce into the blender.

3. Blend well until all combined but do not over blend.  Place dressing in a sealed container and place in refrigerator until ready to use.

4. Prepare salad by washing the spinach carefully and placing in a large bowl.

5. Fry up your bacon and crumble and then slice up the hard boiled eggs.

6. Place bacon crumbles, sliced eggs, and drained oranges over the bed of spinach.

7.  When ready to serve shake the homemade dressing carefully in the sealed container and drizzle over the salad.

8.  Serve immediately and enjoy!

Tips – This dressing does not store well, only make enough for what you will be using that day.  Prepare your salad just moments before enjoying it.

Don’t you love how colorful this spinach salad is?  Packed with veggies and protein, this is a perfect side to serve for dinner or even a large gathering.  When we took this salad to our dinner with friends we actually set out each ingredient separately so people could add what they wanted.  Some of our friends are vegetarian and vegan.

I am so happy I have this recipe and feel like I have mastered it.  It will now become a stable in our dinner meal plans and I love the memories that it brings when I prepare it.

Do you have any family recipes that you love now that you are an adult but you hated as a child?

 

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