I love layering beautiful, colorful fruits and vegetables on platters, sprinkling with a finely chopped fresh herb and drizzling with a luscious, vibrant vinaigrette.

Using fresh fruit provides bursts of juice and brightness. Incorporating roasted vegetables with floral, succulent fruits creates texture and intense flavors; the vegetables add a second dimension to the dish.

Adding creamy, tangy goat cheese to a fruit-filled salad offsets sweetness and provides a touch of pungency and a smooth, unctuous mouth feel.

Utilizing a sharp, nutty, mature cheese, such as a hard, crumbling wedge of Parmigiano Reggiano, to a primarily roasted, vegetables-based salad adds needed crunch. The salty, earthiness of the cheese echoes the savory aspects of the dish while providing a touch of elegance and indulgence.

Kale, Yellow Beet and Satsuma salad is scrumptious. The tomatoes and oranges are sweet and juicy, while the kalamata olives are briny and salty. The balsamic vinaigrette provides acidity and the fresh parsley a refreshing pop of luminosity. The wilted, nutrient rich-kale tastes clean and light.

Roasted Green Cauliflower, Pear and Bacon Salad boasts caramelized fruit and vegetable with rich, deep flavor. Crispy, salty turkey bacon crumbles are smoky, succulent and decadent. Buy the best quality, organic turkey bacon you can find.  A scattering of earthy, finely chopped rosemary and thyme and moist, briny capers subtly enhance the dish without overpowering the star ingredient, the cauliflower. A lively twist of lemon invigorates the plate as a whole.

The finale – Gorgeous, flavorful, bright salads that taste delicious. Each leaves you feeling satisfied and healthy, yet incredibly indulged and delighted. Salads for dinner? Yes, please!

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Kale, Yellow Beet, Olive and Satsuma Salad

Serves: 2 Ward Family Adults or 4 Normal Folk

Ingredients:

One pound of pre-packaged, organic baby kale

One Tablespoon lemon juice

Two Tablespoons dry white wine

Four jarred artichokes, roughly chopped

One heirloom tomato, halved and thinly sliced

One satsuma orange, peeled, halved and thinly sliced

3 large, yellow beets, peeled, halved and very thinly sliced

10 pitted kalamata olives, roughly chopped

1 Tablespoon fresh parsley, finely chopped

2 Tablespoons garlic infused extra virgin olive oil, to sauté the kale

cooking spray, to roast the beets

4 Tablespoons homemade or store-bought balsamic vinaigrette

kosher salt and cracked black pepper, for seasoning each layer, to taste

Optional: four ounces of creamy goat cheese

Preparation:

• Sauté the kale in the garlic infused olive oil over medium heat until wilted.If you have beet greens from your beets, you may wash and chop them and sauté with the kale.
• Add the wine and lemon juice. Season with salt and pepper.
• Continue cooking the kale until almost no liquid remains.
• Evenly distribute the kale on a large serving plate. Evenly lay the artichokes on top of the kale.
• Preheat the oven to 400•F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and spray with cooking spray.
• Place the sliced beets evenly on the tray. Spray with additional cooking spray and season with salt and pepper.
• Roast for about twenty minutes, until tender and very light brown. Cool.
• Place the beets on top of the sauteed kale.
• Next, layer the tomatoes, then the oranges, on top of the beets.
• Season this layer with additional salt and pepper.
• Drizzle the vinaigrette evenly over the salad.
• Sprinkle the olives and parsley and (optional) goat cheese evenly over the dressing.
• Serve at room temperature.

Roasted Green Cauliflower, Pear and Bacon Salad

Serves: 2 Ward Family Adults or 4 Normal Folk

Ingredients:

1 whole green cauliflower, roughly chopped, including stems and leaves*

One bartlett pear, cored and cut into ten slices

16 baby carrots, halved

4 slices of thick cut, organic turkey bacon, diced into small pieces

cooking spray, to roast the cauliflower

2 Tablespoons capers, drained and rinsed

3 Tablespoons French vinaigrette, homemade or store-bought

1 Tablespoon freshly squeezed lemon juice

1/2 teaspoon each, fresh rosemary and thyme, very finely chopped

kosher salt and cracked black pepper, for seasoning, to taste

thinly shaved Parmigiano Reggiano, optional, to taste

Preparation:

• Preheat the oven to 400•F. Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper.
• Spray the sheet with cooking spray.
• Evenly lay the carrot, cauliflower and pear on the cooking sheet.
• Spray with additional cooking spray and season well with salt and pepper.
• Roast for about fifteen minutes, or until the carrots, pear and cauliflower are softened but not browned.
• At this point, add the chopped, uncooked bacon to the cookie sheet.
• Sprinkle the bacon evenly over the carrot, pear and cauliflower mixture and return the pan to the oven.
• Roast for about ten more minutes, until the bacon pieces are crispy and their fat has rendered and the carrots, cauliflower and pear are light brown and slightly caramelized.
• Lay the mixture on a serving platter.
• Next, sprinkle the capers, rosemary and thyme evenly over the top.
• Drizzle the lemon juice and vinaigrette evenly over the salad.
• Season with additional salt and pepper, if desired. The (optional) cheese, bacon and capers will add a fair amount of salt.
• Scatter a handful of Parmigiano Reggiano shavings of the salad, if using.
• Serve at room temperature.

*The salty, roasted cauliflower leaves and stems are vegetable french fry crack. I kid you not.

©Shanna Koenigsdorf Ward, shannaward.com (2013-2015), unauthorized use and/or duplication of this material without expressed and written permission from this blog’s author, Shanna Koenigsdorf Ward, and/or owner is strictly and completely prohibited.