Leftover Turkey Salad with Cranberry Vinaigrette

To make the vinaigrette dressing, in a blender, combine olive oil, red wine vinegar, balsamic vinegar, prepared cranberries, mustard, garlic, sea salt, and ground black pepper. Blend until very smooth, then set aside. If you’d like the consistency to be a tiny bit looser, you could add 1-2 tablespoons water, if desired.

To make the candied pecans, heat a pan over medium heat and add the raw pecans and pure maple syrup. Stir pecans pretty consistently and you’ll start to see the maple syrup crystallize and coat the pecans in a sugary coating. This should take about 5–8 minutes. Once syrup has crystallized, remove from heat, allow to cool, and then chop.

To assemble the salad, begin with a bed of fresh baby spinach, then top with diced Thanksgiving turkey, crumbled goat cheese, diced avocado, the candied pecans, and some pomegranate seeds. Drizzle with the cranberry dijon vinaigrette and enjoy.

Note: To make this recipe, I use leftover turkey meat and leftover cranberries from Thanksgiving, but you can always make your own (which I totally have, too) to enjoy this salad year round.