This leafy green salad is the perfect side dish for nearly any meal. The dressing is sweet, and the apples, pears, and pecans add lots of crunch!
If you go to church or grew up in the church, you’d undoubtedly seen what I call a Church Lady Cookbook. It’s a self-published collection of recipes from the ladies of the church, spiral bound into a book covered with hearts, roosters, or cartoon ladies holding steaming apple pies.
Every once in awhile, you find a recipe inside that is pure gold. Maybe it’s a recipe that reminds you of holidays as a child. Pistachio “Salad”, anyone? Or maybe it’s an amazing recipe for corn casserole.
In the case of Church Lady Salad, it’s just a really tasty salad recipe—one that you’ll make again and again.
My Church Lady Salad is a riff on a recipe entitled “Winter Fruit Salad”, adapted from one of my mom’s church cookbooks published in the 1990s. Now I wouldn’t call this a fruit salad. There is fruit, but it’s definitely a lettuce salad.
You see, these cookbooks take a liberal approach to the word “salad”. Many recipes filed as salad contain Jell-O pudding. A few contain just regular Jell-O, and they of course wiggle when you unmold them.
One salad recipe even contains chopped up Snickers bars. It’s appropriately named “Snickers Salad”, and to be honest it is really delicious. So you can see that the term “salad” is used loosely.
Most modern day vinaigrette recipes call for olive oil and maybe a teaspoon or two of honey. The vinaigrette for the Church Lady Salad, however, contains vegetable oil and a half cup (!) of sugar. No agave, honey, or fancy olive oil here!
It’s truly a vinaigrette that you could make with pantry staples. And wouldn’t you know it—the vinaigrette is really good! It’s sweet but not overly so, and the shallot adds a nice onion-like bite.
It’s topped with apples, cranberries, pecans, and shredded cheese (I used gouda). And it goes with just about everything! I served it most recently with Cuban Skirt Steak with Chimichurri Sauce and Arroz Moro (Cuban Black Beans and Rice).
Church Lady Salad is not remotely Cuban, but it complemented the meal really well. It would also go well with lasagna, pizza, sandwiches, beef roasts, pork roasts—basically anything!
Church Lady Salad
Ingredients
For the vinaigrette:
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped shallot
- ½ cup granulated sugar
- ⅓ cup lemon juice
- ⅔ cup vegetable oil
- ½ teaspoon kosher salt
- 1 tablespoon poppyseeds
For the salad:
- 1 large head lettuce, torn (or 10 oz of bagged/boxed lettuce)
- ¾ cup chopped pecans
- 1 large apple, cubed (I used Pink Lady)
- 1 cup shredded cheese, such as swiss, gouda, or manchego
- ½ cup dried cranberries
Instructions
For the vinaigrette:
- Combine the vinaigrette ingredients in a 16 oz jar with a tight fitting lid. Screw on the lid and shake until combined.
For the salad:
- Add all of the salad ingredients to a large bowl, reserving a few tablespoons of all topping ingredients (pecans, apple, cheese, and cranberries) for the top.
- Toss half of the vinaigrette with the salad mixture. Add more if desired. Top with the reserved topping ingredients and serve immediately.