Sweet and savory, fresh and healthy! Integrate a few of the winter fruits at their peak season into your meals. Mandarin Oranges during this season are the best–sweet, colorful, and juicy!  Loving these paired with another amazing winter fruit–the pomegranate! These are highly nutritious as well as delicious. A little bit of saltiness with the blue cheese and crunch with pecans, make the perfect little sweet and savory side salad. Remember when picking out your pomegranate, you want one heavy for it’s size and with a reddish brown peel. You can store these in your fridge for about month.

Serves 4 salad plate size servings

[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]

  • 4 cups butter lettuce, torn into pieces
  • 1 cup raddiccio torn into pieces
  • 2 oz. blue cheese crumbles
  • 1/2 cup pomegranate arils (seeds)
  • 1 cup mandarin orange sections
  • 2 oz chopped pecans[/ingredients]  Salad Dressing:[ingredients title=”Ingredients”]
    • 4 Tbs olive oil
    • 1 tsp maple syrup
    • juice of 1/2 lemon
    •  Tbs unfiltered cider vinegar

    [/ingredients][directions title=”Directions”]

    1. In a small dish whisk your salad dressing ingredients.  Alternatively, you can place these ingredients in a lidded jar and shake well.
    2. Layer lettuce and raddiccio on your salad plates, distributing evenly between 4 plates.
    3. Place pomegrante arils and mandarin sections on top of the lettuce.
    4. Top with blue cheese and pecans.
    5. Drizzle each salad with dressing.

    [/directions]