Panera Bread Fuji Apple Salad

Packing a lunch for work every day gets really, really boring. I can only take so many turkey sandwiches before I absolutely lose my mind from the monotony. I really like salads, but I’m really finicky when it comes to dressings. My preference always goes towards the buttermilk-laden fatty dressings that are tasty but not exactly health food. Imagine my delight when I stumbled across this Panera salad. Immediately I knew I needed to find a copycat recipe for this salad to make for lunch and low and behold, it’s awesome. Light, healthy and incredibly flavorful without being overpowering.
I made a few tweaks to the original recipe, omitting chicken most of the time and adding a few dried cranberries or dried cherries just for some extra color.

Fuji Apple Salad 
printable recipe

Ingredients:
for the dressing
1/3 cup Olive Oil
1 Tablespoon White Balsamic Vinegar
1 Tablespoon Apple Cider Vinegar
2 garlic cloves, finely diced
2 small shallots, finely chopped
1 1/2teaspoons Dijon Mustard
3 Tablespoons Frozen Apple juice Concentrate

for the salad
spinach
green leaf lettuce or romaine lettuce, chopped
tomatoes, chopped
pecan halves
dried apple slices
feta or blue cheese, crumbled
red onion, diced
dried cranberries

Directions:
Mix together all of the dressing ingredients in a medium bowl.
Assemble the salad and drizzle dressing over the top.

Source: Adapted from SparkRecipes

One Year Ago on Laura’s Recipe Collection Best Ever Chocolate Cake
Two Years Ago on Laura’s Recipe Collection Pepperoni Cheese Bread