Spinach, Walnut, and Curried-Apple Salad

This warm salad makes a great lunch or light supper alongside breadsticks or an Amy's Indian samosa wrap (which is a nice compliment to the curry flavor).  It takes wonderful advantage of red curry powder - not to be confused with the yellow-colored Madras curry powder - and is a fun and different way to incorporate the spice into your cooking.  If you like spicy food, increase the amount of red curry powder to 1 and 1/2 teaspoons.

Ingredients:

• Cooking spray
• 1 and 1/2 cups thinly sliced Granny Smith apple
• 1 cup thinly sliced red onion
• 1 teaspoon red curry powder
• 3 tablespoons cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons vegetable broth
• 1 tablespoon agave nectar
• 8 cups fresh spinach
• 2 tablespoons toasted and chopped walnuts
• 2 cooked and crumbled Lightlife bacon slices

1. Heat a skillet coated with cooking spray over medium-high heat.  Add the apple and onion and saute for 3 minutes.  Add the curry powder and saute for 1 minute.  Stir in the cider vinegar, the vegetable broth, and the agave nectar.

2. Place the spinach in a large bowl, and pour the warm apple mixture over the spinach, tossing to coat.  Sprinkle with the nuts and the bacon.

Note: quickly toast the walnuts ahead of time by heating in a skillet over medium-high heat for about 3 minutes, until the nuts are fragrant, making sure to shake the skillet nearly constantly to prevent the nuts from burning.  When you cook the bacon, make sure to make it nice and crispy, so it will crumble easier.

Nutrition Info:
6 servings (about 3/4 cup), Calories 74

Tasting Notes:
A wonderful mix of sweet and salty, tender and crunchy in every bite.  This salad would definitely be worthy of company; I loved the warm curry notes in each bite, and the tenderness of the apple.  My only complaint is that - with so much going on - it felt like a main dish salad instead of a side dish, in which case I recommend amping it up either with tempeh or seitan strips, or some chopped Gardein chicken.  

Rating:
4