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Salads are one of my favorite things to eat! In fact, I don’t think there can be too many salads in your repertoire. Who knew a plate full of fresh produce can yield so many different flavors? This Mandarin Salad is a fun one – crunchy chow mein noodles and juicy pineapple! Yum.
We’ve been making this recipe for over 20 years! When I was a kid, some friends made this salad and we loved it and requested the recipe. Growing up, we simply called this Mandarin Salad, “Mrs. Bowen’s Salad”. 😉
I know we think of salads as health food, but salads can actually be full of not so great ingredients. This salad is a bit of a splurge with an ingredient I don’t buy for anything else – chow mein noodles! But considering it’s just a topping – I’m okay with it.
Besides, this salad is a fun twist on the typical salad flavors and is one of my husband’s favorites.
These are the noodles they have available at our Wal-Mart. Maybe a health food store would have something a little better.
Mandarin Salad
- ¼ c. sliced almonds
- 1 T. sugar (I omit the sugar)
- 1 head romaine or green leaf lettuce
- 4 stalks celery
- 4 green onions, chopped
- 1 large can pineapple tidbits, drained well (can substitute fresh)
- 3-4 cups chopped cooked chicken breasts
- chow mein noodles
- ¼ c. oil (I use olive oil)
- 2 T. sugar (I use a pinch of stevia)
- 2 T. vinegar
- 1 T. snipped parsley (or 1 t. dried parsley)
- ½ salt
- dash pepper
- dash Tabasco sauce
- Cook almonds and sugar over low heat until the sugar is melted and almonds coated. Cool and break apart. (Note: I simply lightly toast the almonds with no sugar)
- Wash and tear lettuce into small pieces.
- Place salad ingredients into separate dishes for a build your own salad meal (our preferred method) or toss together all salad ingredients except for the almonds and chow mein noodles. Top with chow mein noodles, dressing, and almonds right before serving.
- Combine all ingredients in a small mason jar. Shake well and refrigerate until serving.
After today’s meals, I need a something light to eat for dinner. This sounds like a perfect salad to enjoy! Thanks for sharing at Fiesta Friday!
I’m on a healthy eating plan at the moment. I needed to starting eating a, well, just something healthy. As park of that there has been lots of salads.
So, it’s always nice finding recipes to try something news. I’ll be trying this one out
Sounds great. Thanks for being on the #DreamTeam this week. Please do head back to the linky and add the badge to your post. Thanks