Wow! It turns out you guys really like to make your own interesting salad dressings. We got some great buzz on Twitter about our 3 healthy summer salad dressing recipes, so I wanted to give you a delicious way to use my personal favorite of the three: the nutty citrus & shallot dressing. It’s a really balanced combination of nut oil (I used almond oil but walnut would be delicious too), lemon juice, orange juice and shallots.
This grilled chicken salad with almonds, feta & blueberries is a perfect complement to the dressing and a fantastic light summer salad. Oh yeah, and it’s SO PRETTY! Feel free to use whatever nuts or berries you have on hand. I love almonds with the almond oil, but you can use pistachios, walnuts, pecans or (oooh, light bulb above my head) macadamia nuts! If strawberries weren’t prohibitively expensive here in Tokyo, I probably would have use them instead of blueberries. But raspberries, peaches or pitted cherries would be terrific, and I think watermelon would work really nicely too. While feta is my top choice of cheese for this salad because I like the salty kick, you could also go with a crumbled goat cheese or maybe a mild bleu. I’d love to hear your variations if you end up making this yourself!
One year ago: and easy summer cocktail of Bourbon and Peach Nectar
- 1/8 cup of nutty citrus & shallot dressing
- 2 cups of your favorite greens; I love Bibb lettuce, little gems or baby greens
- 1 grilled boneless, skinless chicken breast, cut into 1 inch cubes
- 1/4 cup blueberries or other fruit
- 1/8 cup toasted almonds
- 1/8 cup crumbled feta cheese
- Salt and pepper, to taste
- optional: 1 tablespoon of fresh basil cut into a chiffonade
- Toss the greens in the nutty citrus & shallot dressing. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
- Top with the chicken, blueberries, almonds and feta. Add the optional basil, if using.
- If you've got the grill fired up for dinner, throw an extra chicken breast on and save it for lunch the next day to make this tasty summer salad.
