So I’ve blogged a lot about Louisiana food, but I’ve rarely blogged about something that, in my mind, I have pegged as Utah food. I don’t know exactly why that is–maybe Louisiana food is just more new to me or maybe I feel like we have such a strong Utah-based readership that people won’t care about my Utah-in-my-brain recipes. Heck, I don’t even know what constitutes Utah food, but for some reason, in my mind, this salad just has “Beehive State” written all over it.
I haven’t made this salad for a long time–I’ve been distracted with things like Sara’s Asian Wonton Salad and Chipotle Chicken Taco Salad. But remember when Sara talked about taking a bite of Black Bean Soup and being whooshed back to Brazil? That’s exactly how I felt when I took a bite of this salad. I was immediately transported a few years and 2000 miles back to the apartment my husband and I lived in for three years while he finished school, the one where we brought both our kids home from the hospital, the one where my cooking obsession kind of exploded.
This salad is pretty much a guaranteed hit at parties. My insanely picky 5-year-old eats it with minimal coaxing. My 2-year-old closes her eyes and sighs (she does it when she eats sushi, too…it’s pretty darn cute). Plus, it’s quick, easy, and cheap–I mean, check out the ingredients:
Doesn’t get much better than that, right?
Spinach Mandarin Poppy Seed Salad
Recipe from Our Best Bites
Ingredients:
