This past winter, I was part of a 3-month, residential, personal development program for young adults. One component of the program involved cooking for one another. We were split into cooking groups, and each group was responsible for two meals over the three months. My cooking group lucked into cooking Easter dinner, and decided, in order to accommodate all the food restrictions in our group, to cook a gluten-free, vegan meal.
The cornerstone of our main course was my rice dressing recipe, but we still needed a couple of veggie dishes. We ended up opting for glazed carrots, and this salad recipe, which was recommended by one of my other group members. The recipe features mandarin oranges, glazed walnuts, craisins, avocado, and blue cheese (which we decided to omit, since half our cooking group had dairy allergies). I expected the salad would be tasty, but I was shocked how amazingly it turned out. It was completely devoured, and even people in our group who hated walnuts with a fiery passion went back for seconds and thirds.
