Favorite Winter Salads

I've been chopping together a lot of salads lately— some with greens, some without. Thought I'd share a couple of my favorites:

-chopped snap peas and carrots with feta, currants, and sunflower seeds
-arugula with navel orange, avocado, and spicy candied pecans

I dressed both of these in meyer lemon juice and olive oil.

For the candied pecans, I heated the nuts in a skillet with a splash of balsamic vinegar, a few tablespoons of brown sugar, a dash of cayenne, and a little garlic powder.

When putting together a salad, I like to have some green, some sort of dried or fresh fruit, some crumbly or hard cheese, and some sort of seed or nut. For dressings, I typically do olive oil and whatever vinegar best suits the ingredients (beets=balsamic; carrots=white or apple cider; green beans=red wine), along with a spoonful of mustard and some spices (i'm a ground coriander fan). Lately, though, I've been revisiting the good ol' lemon-juice-olive-oil-salt-and-pepper trick. So easy, and so good! Especially with feta and citrus :)