Summer Strawberry Salad

This past weekend we took our moms out for Mothers Day Brunch, and although the restaurant is known for their amazing seafood, we all went nuts over the salads!  I knew at the first bite that I would be trying to recreate both of them at home.  The first one is a mixed green salad with pretty simple ingredients.  I knew that it would just come down to getting the dressing right.  The other salad was a cold brussel sprout salad that will take a little more experimenting.

To make this great summer salad, start with a base of mixed baby greens.

Top with the most perfectly ripe, in-season strawberries you can find.

Add some sliced cucumbers, red onion, crumbled goat cheese, and lightly toasted sunflower seeds.

For the dressing, I just adapted this recipe to include half raspberry vinegar and half balsamic vinegar.

Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette

1/2 of 1/3 cup balsamic vinegar

1/2 of 1/3 cup raspberry balsamic (mine was a gift from a specialty vinegar store)

1 clove of garlic

1 tsp honey

fresh ground salt and pepper

Add vinegars, garlic, honey, salt and pepper to blender and blend well until garlic is pureed.  Slow blender to low speed and slowly drizzle in 1/3 cup plus 1/2 of 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil.

**I apologize for all of the odd fractions in this recipe!  I couldn’t make a big batch of dressing since I didn’t have much of the rasberry vinegar.  Feel free to double the recipe in order to have nice even measurements!

Top salad with dressing and enjoy!  This will definitely be a staple around here all summer long!