Apple and fried sage salad

Serves 4-6 as side dish or 2-3 as a main (we love salad in our house and eat a lot of it, so these numbers may be a bit off for you!)

Prep time: approximately 15 minutes

I love a salad with a holiday meal - it lightens things up, but I see it as high-risk / high-reward. A boring salad give the wrong idea of what the whole meal will be like and makes people regret eating it. I like this salad because it is simple, light, and anything but boring. The fried sage leaves paired with the spiced pecans really makes it feel special without overpowering the rest of the meal (even for people who don’t typically love sage). Even outside the holidays, I love this salad - everything about it celebrates the season!

Photo credit Ken Kaushansky

1 head romaine lettuce, cleaned and chopped

2 Fuji apples

1/2 cup pecans

1/4 cup fresh sage leaves (make sure they are not wet!)

2t honey

1/2 t each cloves and nutmeg

1T apple cider vinegar

1/2 t whole grain mustard

2T olive oil

Salt and pepper

Begin by frying the sage. Simply heat 1T olive oil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Place clean and dried sage leaves in the hot oil. Fry until they have darkened in color, about 2 minutes. Remove, place on a paper towel or brown paper bag to dry, and sprinkle with salt.

Next, toast the pecans. Add to a dry pan and allow to toast over low heat for 30 seconds. Add 1t honey, cloves and nutmeg, and sprinkle with salt, and allow to cook for another 1-2 minutes, until the honey begins to darken. Remove from heat and allow to cool.

To make the dressing, simply combine 1T olive oil with 1T apple cider vinegar, 1t whole grain mustard and 1t honey. Add salt and pepper to taste.

Finally, assemble the salad. Combine chopped lettuce with apple slices, fried sage and spiced pecans. Dress just before serving.