Fall Harvest Salad with Apples, Pecans, Spinach, and Maple-Lime Dressing

Fall Harvest Salad with Cooked Apples, Pecans, Spinach, Goat Cheese, and Maple-Lime Dressing - in a white bowl.

Fall Harvest Salad with Apples, Pecans, Spinach, and Maple-Lime Dressing

This Fall Harvest Salad features Autumn-inspired ingredients, such as apples, pecans, and maple syrup, together with baby spinach and goat cheese. This salad is unique because the sliced apples are cooked in maple syrup and lime juice before adding them to the salad. This not only makes apples delicious but it also prevents them from browning. This is a must-try recipe to make in the Fall and Winter. It also makes a festive side dish for the holidays (Thanksgiving, Friendsgiving, and Christmas).

Course Salad

Cuisine American

Keyword autumn harvest salad, fall harvest salad

Prep Time 10

Cook Time 10

Total Time 20

Servings people

Calories 375kcal

Author Julia

Ingredients

Cooked apples

2 small red apples Gala, Fuji, or Honey Crisp
2 tablespoons olive oil
3 tablespoons maple syrup
3 tablespoons lime juice freshly squeezed

Salad ingredients

6 oz baby spinach
1 cup pecan halves toasted, some of them chopped finely
⅓ cup goat cheese crumbled

US Customary - Metric

Instructions

Cook apples

Core the apples and slice each one length-wise. You don't need to peel them.
Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large skillet on medium-high heat.
Add sliced apples and cook them for about 3 minutes per side or until soft and pliable. Remove from heat.
Add maple syrup and lime juice and stir everything together.

Assembly

I prefer to arrange the salad in individual bowls for presentation purposes.
Add baby spinach to each salad bowl.
Chop up half of the nuts. Add pecans on top of the spinach.
Add crumbled goat cheese to the salad.
Top with cooked apples. Drizzle the maple-lime juices from the skillet over the salad.
Alternatively, you can combine all the salad ingredients (except pecans) in a large serving bowl, including cooked apples and all the juices from the skillet, and toss to combine. Then, top the salad with toasted pecan halves (some of them chopped).

Notes

If using raw pecans, toast them in the preheated oven at 350 F for about 5 or 10 minutes until slightly darker in color and crunchy. Be careful not to burn the nuts.
You can also purchase roasted, flavored, or candied pecans. In this case, you don't need to toast them.

Nutrition