Salads reign supreme in my kitchen these days. Who wants to slave over a stove for a meal when it would mean a sweltering kitchen for the remainder of the evening? I don’t have the luxury of central air conditioning and have a home framed by windows and skylights so keeping indoor temperatures slightly cooler than the outdoors is always a consideration during summer. I have been serving some of my go-to salads as well as some new ones inspired by my larder or farmers market finds.
This salad is a combination of both. The Nectarine-Blueberry Jam I brought home from a jam-making session with some blogger friends was the base for this vinaigrette I prepared recently. One would not normally consider jam in a salad dressing–at least I haven’t until now–but the looser texture (we didn’t use pectin) made the preserves perfect for infusing fruity flavor into my vinaigrette.
The greens with edible flowers were from the farmers market. They are almost as common now as the vegetables and artisan breads that are at stall after stall at the farmers market but there’s no denying the special quality the flowers offer a meal once arranged prettily on a plate.
I can’t seem to have enough blueberries these days so I’ve added them to this salad, making the perfect accent to highlight the fruity quality of the Nectarine-Blueberry Vinaigrette which brought it all together. This is one salad that is truly a feast for the eyes as well as the taste buds.
Mixed Green Salad with Nectarine-Blueberry Vinaigrette
Ingredients
- Salad greens of your choice
- Feta Cheese
- Red onions thinly sliced
- Fresh blueberries
- 2 heaping Tablespoons preserves I used homemade nectarine-blueberry jam with a loose texture
- 4 Tablespoons cider vinegar
- Good pinch of kosher salt
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
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To prepare the dressing, combine the preserves, vinegar and season with salt, to taste. Whisk in the olive oil until emulsified.
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Drizzle the vinaigrette over plated greens and garnish with feta cheese, onions and more blueberries.
Recipe Notes
Adjust the proportions of the greens and garnish according to your preference and the number of people you are serving. This vinaigrette will be enough for four salads served as a starter.
This is another must-make salad for me, Jean. Absolutely gorgeous! The nectarine-blueberry vinaigrette is calling my name and the edible flowers make this almost too pretty to eat! Almost… 🙂
Beautiful salad Jean, you’ve really come up with some beauties this Summer! I like the vinaigrette recipe and the flowers on top are lovely:-)
How colorful and utterly light and refreshing!
What a beautiful salad – love the homemade preserves in the vinaigrette.
It’s too beautiful to eat Jean! And I love the vinaigrette you put together. Thanks for sharing!
No AC? I wouldn’t cook much either! This salad looks incredible, so colorful and great flavors.
Jean – I am LOVING this salad! What a brilliant idea to use the jam we made a few weeks ago – just perfect. I always enjoy the lovely salads you make and your photos just pop off the page! Have a great week my friend!!! (PS – we need to plan a flying trip with the hubbies – email me 🙂 )
What a pretty salad. It’s almost to beautiful to eat!
Jean, that’s a brillant idea to use some of the jam in dressing. I can eat it on toast pretty much every day, but I need to mix it up once in a while. It’s been stuffy and hot here too, I can’t believe I’m actually saying it, but when is fall? Hope you are enjoying summer and hope to see you again soon.
-Gina-
A refined salad! What goregous sweet-savory flavors.
Cheers,
Rosa
This is one beautiful salad. I love that you used jam to make the vinaigrette. I love those orange and white plates! I happen to have the same ones. Gotta love Anthropologie 🙂
So pretty! Edible flowers are tres elegante! I’ve used preserves in dipping sauces, so I can imagine this sublime fruity vinaigrette.
Great idea to use your nectarine blueberry jam in a dressing, now I need to make me some of that jam!
These edible flowers are so pretty! Perfect salad for a busy night.
Salads are the meal of the day around here all summer long. So easy to put together and good for us, after all the cakes we’ve been indulging in for the last couple of weeks
So gorgeous and breathtaking photography – the flowers on salad increased my appetite and excitement! Love fruity flavor vinaigrette. Very summary and love the colors on a plate!
This is so pretty…almost too pretty to eat but I would! I recently made a similar salad but it looks lame now when I see yours with the beautiful pansies. Gorgeous.
What a beautiful idea to use the preserves as a base for your dressing…gorgeous salad!
As I make my way around blogs during my week, I always am looking for blogs with recipes to feature in my Tasty Tuesday Feature. This week I am featuring your salad recipe with other Italian recipes this week. If you would like to stop by and add other recipes to share, please do so here Tasty Bites Tuesday Thank you and Bon Apatite!