Wilted Spinach Salad with Chicken & Honey Mustard Dressing

I know I said I quit using recipes for my salads.  In fact, I haven't even eaten a salad in a few days due to a sick baby.  Oh, but this salad looks so lovely and easy to prepare I had to share.  

Wilted Spinach Salad with Chicken & Honey Mustard Dressinghttp://nourishedkitchen.com/wilted-spinach-salad/

A wilted spinach salad, simple and nourishing, offers an excellent way to incorporate fresh winter greens onto your supper table during the long, dark days of winter when hardy spinach is plentiful. Heating the spinach very slightly, as in this wilted spinach salad recipe requires, provides a dual purpose: not only does it make the dish more suitable for cold days when fresh, raw greens can be unappealing, but it also helps to mitigate the effects of oxalic acid – an antinutrient naturally found in spinach and other greens.

Wilted Spinach Salad

Fresh spinach and chicken combine with the smokiness of bacon and sweetness of apples for a satisfying winter salad.

Wilted Spinach Salad: Ingredients

• 4 slices bacon
• ¼ cup prepared honey mustard dressing^*
• 4 cups fresh baby spinach
• 1 small red onion, sliced into rounds
• 1 small apple, sliced thin
• 1 cup cooked chicken, chopped into bit-sized pieces

Wilted Spinach Salad: Method

1. Fry four slices bacon over medium heat until crispy. Remove bacon from the pan, turn off the heat and gently stir ¼ cup honey mustard dressing into the rendered bacon grease. Set aside to cool slightly.
2. Toss remaining ingredients together, garnish with fried bacon and dress with the mixture of bacon grease and honey mustard dressing.

Yield: 4 servings

Time: 10 minutes (preparation)

*This recipe was prepared for the Family Bites Section of FoodBuzz sponsored by Newman’s Own, using Newman’s Own^® Lighten Up Honey Mustard Dressing. If you wish to avoid soybean oil, as I do, you may prepare your own honey mustard dressing by combining ¼ cup raw honey, 2 tablespoons Dijon-style mustard, 2 tablespoons unrefined extra virgin olive oil and 2 tablespoons raw cider vinegar.