Entree Salad with Grilled Vegetable Dressing

Dressing: start by cutting the bell pepper into one long strip or 4 large segments. Then cut the root ends off the onion and thinly slice both halves. Heat up your grill (I used my conversion panini press/griddle) and spray with cooking spray. When hot, place the whole bell pepper and half of the onion on the grill (reserve the other half for the salad) and allow to cook until fork tender. To your blender, add the cooked veggies, salt, pepper, garlic, lemon juice, sugar, cherry tomatoes, and basil. Pulse the ingredients until smooth. While the blender is on slowly, stream in the extra virgin olive oil. Taste it to see if you want more salt or pepper.

Spray the grill with more cooking spray and throw on the sausages and sprinkle with salt. Allow them to cook for a bit and turn them over so they cook all the way through; set aside. Shred the carrot and mozzarella cheese, then drain and rinse the beans. Slice the sausage on a bias. Slice the reserved red onion half. Grab the spring mix and wash it if it isn’t pre-rinsed.

Now you are ready to assemble the salad. Put 1 1/2 cups spring mix onto each plate, top with the beans, reserved sliced red onion, shredded carrots, sliced sausage, mozzarella cheese and the grilled vegetable dressing.