crack salad

kris made this salad for me on valentine's day many years ago. i'm sure it has some sort of name that actually tells you a little about the salad but we just started calling it crack salad. it's so delicious i just want to drink the dressing, i could eat this sweet oniony amazingness every day. perhaps because we had to cut ourselves off we hadn't made this in a really long time. however i cooked a special dinner a couple of nights ago in honor of our old anniversary (just cause we have a new one now doesn't mean the old one goes away....now we just have more excuses to celebrate!) and thought it was a perfect time to bring back the crack. if you are looking to woo someone with a homemade valentine's dinner this is the perfect start to the meal. or if you just happen to be cooking dinner anytime, this is the perfect start to the meal. just do yourself a favor and make this salad soon.

oh yeah, you maybe want to put the dressing on something. toss together baby spinach, strawberries, toasted walnuts and hearts of palm (though sometimes we do avocado instead) and toss with generous spoonfuls of dressing. the recipe below makes a ton of dressing and can be halved.

crack dressing
ingredients:
1/3 cup apple cider vinegar
3/4 cup sugar
2 tablespoons lemon juice
1 teaspoon salt
1 cup vegetable oil
1/2 small red onion, grated
1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
1 teaspoon dry mustard
1/2 teaspoon paprika

combine vinegar, sugar, lemon juice and salt over medium heat and stir until sugar dissolves. remove from heat and let cool. whisk in oil, onion, poppy seeds, dry mustard and paprika.

-d