So you’re staring at your dinner party menu and trying to figure out a way to make the salad more interesting. Or you’ve decided to make it a light dinner with an extra-healthy salad as the entree. And all you can think of is boring.

So here’s an easy way to dress up a salad with some extra smells & sounds that make any meal just a touch more interesting. And as an added bonus, almost all the ingredients in this week’s recipe are from my new CSA, so they’re all fresh, local, and organic. Yum…

Winter Sizzle Salad

For two meal-sized or four side salads, you’ll need:

1 pink lady or other crunchy munchy tasty apple, sliced thinly, chilled
2 large handfuls each of mixed greens and spinach, rinsed and dried
2-4 oz. fresh goat cheese, kept cold
1/2 cup slivered blanched almonds
Vegetable oil
Your choice of dressing (Trader Joe’s dressings are my favorite, if I don’t get around to making my own), chilled in the fridge for about an hour

Arrange the bed of greens on the plates or bowls you plan to serve with, leaving a little bed in the middle for the almonds.

Place the apples around the edges and dot with bits of goat cheese, about one small dot per apple.

Now for the fun part: heat up several tablespoons of oil in a sturdy frying pan on medium-low heat. When the oil starts to shimmer, add the almonds. Let them cook, stirring a bit, until they just start to brown.

Now, working quickly, scoop out the almonds and place them in the middle of the salad. Place the salads in front of your dinner guests and drizzle the dressing on top while the almonds are still hot. It will sizzle and steam and the mixture of hot and cold in the dish adds to the variety that’s already there (crunchy and smooth, earthy and sweet, creamy and tart).