Warm Balsamic & Garlic Dressing

Tender spinach and peppery arugula are the perfect match for a warm garlicy dressing. The tangy balsamic and orange flavors of our recipe are a perfect complement to the peppery flavor of the arugula. This salad, decorated with freshly chopped rosemary and bacon, will wake up your senses and surprise your guests with its amazing flavor.

The dressing is first heated over the stove and reduced so that it thickens. The salad greens are then tossed in the warm dressing, causing them to wilt just slightly to make this a very delicate and decadent salad. Because these fresh ingredients are also inexpensive, your focus can stay on having fun with your guests and not on your wallet.

This recipe serves four. If you would like to turn it into a meal, the salad pairs nicely with our recipe for Citrus Roasted Shrimp.

Ingredients

• 1/2 pound fresh spinach
• 1/2 pound fresh arugula
• 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice
• 2 garlic cloves
• 3 tablespoons olive oil
• Pinch of kosher salt
• 3 strips of turkey bacon
• 1 tablespoon roughly chopped fresh rosemary

Preparation

1. Preheat the oven to 375 degrees. Lightly oil a baking sheet with non-fat cooking spray and place the turkey bacon on the tray. The bacon needs to get crispy so bake it for approximately 12 minutes. Keep an eye on it to make sure it doesn’t burn. After removing it from the oven, let it cool. In the meantime, do the following steps.
2. Over low-medium heat in a small saucepan add the balsamic vinegar and orange juice.
3. Loosen the papery skin from two garlic cloves by crushing them with the flat side of a chef’s knife using the heel of your hand (be careful!). Remove the skins and add the cloves to the saucepan. The crushed cloves will infuse the balsamic without overdoing it.
4. Bring the balsamic mixture to a simmer and allow it to reduce by half.
5. Wash the spinach and arugula. We like to drop the greens into a large bowl filled with cold water to allow all the dirt and sand drop to the bottom of the bowl. Let the greens stand in the bowl for about 5 minutes and then pat dry on a bed of paper towels. Once the leaves have dried a bit, add them to a large serving bowl. If the arugula leaves are fairly large, you may want to roughly chop them first.
6. Take a few sprigs of rosemary, remove the leaves and roughly chop. Add to the serving bowl.
7. Once the balsamic mixture has reduced, pour into a small mixing bowl. Discard the garlic cloves. Add a pinch of kosher salt and olive oil. Whisk vigorously and immediately pour over the greens.
8. Toss the greens in the dressing until all the leaves are coated.
9. Roughly chop the bacon into bite sized pieces and sprinkle over the top.

For extra credit, serve with a few sprinkles of crumbled feta cheese.

Tags: Recipe

This entry was posted on Monday, April 20th, 2009 at 7:19 pm and is filed under Cook Up. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.