Lemon Berry Mint Salad…So delish!
With Memorial Day this weekend, I have the perfect salad for you! This salad is simple to make, healthy and most importantly, it’s delicious. The forecast here in MN for the holiday weekend is going to be a scorcher. People, we are heading into the 90’s..OMG! What happened to Spring? What have we done to deserve this? Spring is really important to us here in the tundra.
So, enough venting on my end, let’s talk about this amazing salad. This is not your basic berry salad, because who wants to be basic? One of the things that I have been known for, in teaching my cooking classes, is pairing unexpected ingredients. I love to add interest to a dish with a unique ingredient, or two that you don’t always see together. In this case, it’s the addition of the lemon, fresh mint and vanilla bean. You will not believe how well these flavors marry together. The lemon adds a wonderful brightness and the mint and vanilla bean just work.
I like to make this salad when berries are in season because that is when the berries will be the sweetest and most delicious. As you can see from the recipe, I am only adding 1T. of sugar. This is completely optional and you could substitute honey too if you wanted.
The other main flavor driving ingredient in this recipe is the vanilla bean. It adds such an amazing and intense vanilla flavor. If you have never used fresh vanilla bean, I share you how to remove the seeds from the pod in this post on Vanilla Bean Maple Butter. If you do not have vanilla bean on hand, you can always substitute a teaspoon of vanilla extract. I highly recommend the vanilla bean if you can get your hands on it. It’s a game changer.
This salad is not only great on it’s own as a dessert, but can be used to top ice cream or greek yogurt.
Happy Memorial Day Weekend!
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PinDescription
This healthy berry salad is a colorful mix of strawberries and blueberries paired with lemon, mint and vanilla bean. It comes together in minutes.
Ingredients
- 1 Pound of Fresh Strawberries
- 6 oz. of Fresh Blueberries
- ½ Vanilla Bean Pod (seeds only)
- 1 T. of Organic Cane Sugar
- 3 Sprigs of Fresh Mint (Chiffonade)
- Zest of 1 Lemon
Instructions
- Wash berries and put in a medium size bowl. Set Aside.
- Cut vanilla bean in half, scrape out seeds, then add to bowl with fruit. Toss until vanilla bean is well incorporated.
- To chiffonade the mint, stack leaves, rolling them tightly, then slice the leaves perpendicular to the roll.
- Add mint, lemon zest and sugar to bowl. Stir until fruit is well coated with sugar.
- Let sit for approximately 5-10 minutes and serve.
Notes
Can be served plain or over ice cream, Greek yogurt, etc.
I was wondering if there was a substitute for the vanilla beans?
Yes! you can use vanilla extract. I would use about a teaspoon for the lemon berry mint salad. Enjoy!