I often feel like I should be rewarded for eating a salad, but the only thing I seem to get is hungry about an hour after eating one.
I want eating a salad to feel like its own reward. On days where I both run and eat a salad, I want it to feel like a maintainable lifestyle, not just a once and awhile self-esteem boost.
I mean, what says “I can conquer the world and have it all” better than the running and salad-eating combo? I certainly can’t think of anything.
I think my anger for salads comes from all those years I accompanied my family to fast food restaurants and forcing myself to pick the colorless and flavorless salad over anything with actual substance. I’ve slowly opened myself back up to the salad. It’s been a relationship with a lot of ups and downs, but I think we are moving in the right direction.
If I’m going to spend time eating a salad, this salad has to be loaded with delicious things. I kind of want to forget I’m eating greens and instead I just want to believe I’m eating a big bowl of salad toppings. I mean I throw a few greens in there so it still qualifies as a salad, so no worries there.
I want to live a life of salad toppings, not salad greens. But maybe that’s just me.
I ate this haystack onion chicken salad when I was really hungry (from my marathon the day before…) and when I finished, I had that “after a good meal satisfaction” that usually only comes from a few sandwiches or a couple of burritos. I was obviously still hungry enough to eat dessert an hour later, but that was the plan all along.
The crown jewel of this salad are the haystack onions. I adapted my recipe for haystack onions from The Pioneer Woman’s blog. She has some truly amazing stuff one there and it’s always so easy to follow. I fried them up and set them aside to use on the salad later, but then I tried one and that was a dangerous trail to go down. I ate like twenty before I knew what was happening. I should’ve saved up my daily dose of self-control for that moment because those onions were nearly my downfall.
Toasted almonds add an extra crunch, grapes add sweetness, feta adds creaminess, the chicken adds mad protein, the onions add magic, and the apple cider vinaigrette pulls it all together (and everyone knows apple cider vinegar has magical properties). As you can see, there is plenty of stuff that is not greens involved in this salad, which will leave you not hungry, I promise.
Haystack onion chicken salad
Ingredients
For the haystack onions
- 1 sweet onion, thinly sliced
- 1 1/2 cup buttermilk
- 1 cup flour
- 2 tsp salt, divided
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 2 cups canola oil
For the salad
- 6 oz spinach
- 1 cup grapes, halved
- 3/4 cup feta
- 1/2 cup sliced almonds
- haystack onions
- 1 cup diced cooked chicken breast
- 1/2 cup apple cider dressing
For the dressing
- 2 tsp lemon juice
- 1 tsp honey
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar
- 1 tsp garlic powder
- 1/2 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/4 cup olive oil
Instructions
For the haystack onions
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Put sliced onions and buttermilk in a bowl and let soak for at least five minutes.
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Mix together flour, 1 tsp of salt, and pepper in a separate bowl. Drain the buttermilk from the bowl with the onions and add the onions to the flour mixture.
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Once the onions are coated in the flour mixture, heat the oil in a medium-size sauce pan. Once an onion sizzles when dropped in the oil, add a few onions to the oil at once.
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Cook onions until golden and crisp and place on a plate lined with paper towels. Sprinkle with salt. Repeat until all onions are cooked.
For the salad
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Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Spread almonds out on a baking sheet and cook 5 minutes or until the almonds are golden.
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Divide the spinach onto two plates. Top with cheese, grapes, almonds, chicken, and haystack onions. Drizzle 1/4 cup of dressing on each of the salads and serve immediately.
For the dressing
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Mix together lemon juice, honey, and garlic powder. Whisk the mixture while adding the olive oil so the mixture is emulsified. Add salt and pepper to taste.
