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Quick-and-Easy Fall Salads


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Quick-and-Easy Fall Salads
By Jill Banks

Enjoy these timesaving, nutritious fall salads while the weather is still warm enough to make you crave a main course that's cool. If the evening air takes a turn for the nippy, just add a bowl of soup as a starter. Keep it easy by heating chicken, vegetable or beef broth and adding finely chopped vegetables such as green onions, carrots and frozen peas or corn.

It's only 15 minutes to dinner when you serve one of these super salads starring autumn's bounty of fruits and nuts!

Sections

	Autumn Fruit Salad
	Granny Smith and Spiced Walnut Salad
	Pear and Pecan Salad
	Chicken-Stuffed Melon with Pomegranate
	BeyondWork Easy Extras

Autumn Fruit Salad
From the Mayo Clinic/Williams Sonoma Cookbook Simple Solutions for Eating Well.

Serves six.

2/3 cup thawed unsweetened apple juice concentrate
3 tablespoons lime juice
1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
1 teaspoon ground cumin
3 heads butter lettuce, torn into leaves
3 navel oranges
3 red-skinned apples
8 dried Mission or Calimyrna figs, cut into quarters
3 tablespoons toasted pumpkin seeds

Make the dressing by whisking together the apple juice concentrate, lime juice, mustard and cumin until blended. Divide the lettuce leaves amongst six plates. Peel the oranges, remove the white pith and cut crosswise into Ľ-inch slices. Core the apples and cut into thin wedges. Arrange the orange and apple slices on top of the lettuce. To serve, drizzle each salad with 2 tablespoons of dressing and top each with figs and pumpkin seeds.

Granny Smith and Spiced Walnut Salad

Salad greens (crisp romaine lettuce works well)
1 Granny Smith apple for each two people served
Store-bought low-calorie blue cheese dressing
Spiced Walnuts (recipe follows)

Spiced Walnuts

1 1/2 cups walnut pieces
Fat-free, cooking spray or 1 tablespoon butter
2 tablespoons brown sugar
2 teaspoons allspice
1 teaspoon cinnamon
1 teaspoon ground ginger
1 teaspoon nutmeg

If using fat-free spray, spread walnut pieces in a single layer in a nonstick pan, spray with fat-free spray, and toss with the brown sugar and spices. If using butter, melt it over medium heat and add the walnut pieces, sugar and spices. Toast the walnuts over the low to medium heat for six to eight minutes, stirring frequently.

Crisp the salad greens in ice-cold water and spin dry, if necessary. Core the apples and slice them thinly. In a salad bowl toss the greens, apples and enough dressing to make greens and apples glisten. Divide onto serving plates and sprinkle with spiced walnuts.

Pear and Pecan Salad

Serves four.

1/2 cup shelled pecans
3 pears
6-8 ounces mixed salad greens
2-3 tablespoons blue cheese dressing, either store-
bought or homemade

Toast the pecans over low heat in a pan or under a moderate broiler to bring out their flavor. Core the pears and cut into thin wedges, leaving the skin on for extra flavor and nutritive value. Toss the salad greens, the pecans and the pears with the dressing, and serve with warm crusty bread.

Chicken-Stuffed Melon with Pomegranate
From Sunset Favorite Recipes for Salads, Lane Publishing, now out of print.

Serves four.

Pomegranates are a rich source of fiber and vitamins. Use the seeds as a great addition to any fall salad. It's worth "seeding" a couple of pomegranates and then storing these colorful and crunchy salad additions in the refrigerator.

Note: Pomegranate juice stains badly, and the juice-filled seed sacs burst easily. Use this handy tip for releasing the seeds for use in salads. Fill the sink or a bowl with cold water. Submerge a small colander in the water. Make an X cut in the top of the pomegranate. Submerge the pomegranate in the cold water and break apart using the X cut mark as a starting place. Continue to break the seeds out of the white pith. The pith will float, leaving the red, vitamin-rich seeds to sink to the bottom of the colander.

2 medium-size cantaloupes
2 cups cooked chicken, diced
˝ cup seedless grapes
Seeds from one pomegranate
Lime-honey dressing

Cut each cantaloupe in half making zigzag cuts. Scoop out and discard seeds. Remove the melon fruit with a fruit-ball tool, or scoop out with a spoon and cut into bite-size pieces. Place in a mixing bowl and combine with pomegranate seeds, chicken, grapes and dressing.

Lime-honey Dressing: Mix together 4 tablespoons each of lime juice and honey with Ľ teaspoon each of ground coriander and nutmeg.

BeyondWork Easy Extras

Moosewood Restaurant Daily Special: More than 250 Recipes for Soups, Stews, Salads, and Extras by Moosewood Collective (Crown Publishing Group, 1999, $18.24). This price, equivalent to 24% off the retail price, is available only through the BeyondWork link to Barnes & Noble books.
Better Homes and Gardens: Salads by Better Homes & Gardens (Meredith Books, 1994, $12.12). This price, equivalent to 24% off the retail price, is available only through the BeyondWork link to Barnes & Noble books.
A Good Day for Salad by Jeannette Ferrary & Louise Fiszer (Chronicle Books, 1999, $16.20). This price, equivalent to 15% off the retail price, is available only through the BeyondWork link to Barnes & Noble books.
The Mayo Clinic Williams-Sonoma Cookbook: Simple Solutions for Eating Well by John Phillip Carroll, Mayo Clinic & photographer Chris Shorten (Time-Life Custom Publishing, 1998, $22.76). This price, equivalent to 24% off the retail price, is available only through the BeyondWork link to Barnes & Noble books. This cookbook has many recipes for great fall salads and soups.