Gluten free cooks want to enjoy amazing salads in each season. A green Salad with Warm Cranberry Port Vinaigrette is a fancy salad worth repeating year after year. The winning combination of crunchy pistachios, creamy blue cheese and warm dressing is perfect for entertaining.
If you're ready to buy the port I've got more ways for you to cook with it. For an inexpensive bottle of Ruby Port I make this salad dressing, an easy Chicken Porto dish and for dessert, Poached Pears in Port.
I'd reserve a more expensive bottle of Tawny Port for an evening of charcuterie with my 'port friends.'
Jump to:
Ingredients
Winter salads with a warm dressing always feel fancy. For the holidays this salad can be presented beautifully to take advantage of the red and green colours.
- tawny port or Ruby port
- shallots - give the salad a more mild onion flavour
- fresh cranberries - These are better than dried in this recipe.
- olive oil and red wine vinegar - The simple combination for may salads.
- salad greens - Experiment with different greens to see what you like best.
- pistachios - These are a treat worth buying.
- blue cheese (Roquefort, Cambazola or Gorgonzola)
See recipe card for exact amounts.
Ruby Port or Tawny Port
Port is a fortified wine with brandy added during the fermentation process. Port, also called Port Wine, is sold as ruby and tawny. Ruby Port is young and has a deep, ruby colour.
Tawny Port is aged and is a brownish, tawny colour. It's less sweet and is often served with a cheese course after a meal. It's the perfect for charcuterie.
Is Blue Cheese Gluten Free?
Yes, blue cheese is safe anyone on a gluten free diet. Celiac Canada has a short paragraph on the safety of blue cheese. The Spruce Eats has this extensive article titled Blue Cheese Is Gluten-Free: A Research Update.
If you don’t like blue cheese because it's made of mould and smells like stinky socks well that’s different. If you're a little shy about blue try Cambozola. It's a mild, soft cheese that's a combination of creamy Camembert and Italian Gorgonzola. If blue cheese just isn't your thing substitute a creamy goat cheese and enjoy.
Organize For Success: Homemade Dressing
I'm all about homemade salad dressing so I'm set up for it. Here's what I've got:
- A variety of 1-cup and 2-cup Mason jars with plastic lids.
- Small ½-cup jars for a small amount of leftover dressing, they can go in my lunch too.
- Sticky labels from the Dollar Store just for this purpose.
- A Dymo label maker for labelling too.
Yet even today, I have at least three jars of salad dressing in my fridge with no label.
Organize for Success
Good systems make cooking easier. My system for storing everything from flour to salad dressing includes 7 jar sizes with only 2 lids. If you spend time looking for lids to match jars check out my post Organizing with Mason Jars.
Warm Salad with Cranberry Port Vinaigrette
Ingredients
CRANBERRY PORT VINAIGRETTE
- 1 cup tawny port or Ruby port
- ⅓ cup shallots thinly, sliced (or white onion)
- 1 cup fresh cranberries
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- 3 tablespoon red wine vinegar
- salt & pepper
SALAD
- 8 cups assorted greens
- ¼ cup pistachios
- ⅔ cup blue cheese Roquefort, Cambazola or Gorgonzola
Instructions
CRANBERRY PORT VINAIGRETTE
- Boil port and shallots in a small saucepan to reduce slightly, about 15 minutes.
- Add cranberries, oil and vinegar. Boil for 3 minutes. Season with salt and pepper. Let cool slightly.
- Can be prepared one day in advance. Reheat before serving.
SALAD
- Put greens and nuts in a large salad bowl.
- Pour vinaigrette over greens and toss.
- Portion salad onto plates and add cheese. Serve warm.
Notes
Nutrition
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