Spinach Salad with Maple Ginger Dressing

If I was the kind of mom who tricked her kids into eating healthy foods, I might call this salad “Candy Salad”.

And while J Man and Miss Rae would much prefer broccoli and carrots over pasta or rice any day, veg v. candy? The candy always wins.

Truly, though, this salad kinda tastes like dessert. It’s Matty B’s wildest dream.

What if tofu tasted like pizza? Brown rice that tasted like Little Caesars’s crazy bread? Asparagus that tasted like ice cream? Matty B would immediately be the healthiest man you ever met.

So, as amazing as this salad is, and as much as it tastes like dessert to me, do you think for one minute that he would try a bite?

No to the way.

This salad is perfect for after the holidays. It’s like the patch for smokers. It slowly weans you off your drug (nicotine, sugar, it’s all the same) and gets some healthy spinach in your mouth.

In all reality, the dressing is the recipe and the salad is purely a method.

I used spinach, grilled tofu, fresh pineapple, red pepper, basil, avocado and pepitas.

You’ve made a salad before, certainly. I won’t provide too many inane details.

Here’s the good stuff kids go for.

Maple Ginger Dressing

1/4 cup maple syrup
2 TBS lemon juice
2 TBS apple cider vinegar
1/2 tsp mustard (I used Dijon)
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/2 tsp ginger
1/2 tsp salt
3 TBS olive oil

Whisk all ingredients except oil. Slowly add oil, whisking until emulsified. Drizzle over salad and gently combine.

So the man turned up his nose, but my girl? My gourmet, try-anything-as-long-as-mom-is-eating-it, girl?

Gobbled that stuff up.

As for Matty B, if I could only figure out that tofu/pizza swap…