Roasted Garlic, Raspberry & Cashew Salad

Even though I have a fairly solid go-to salad formula, I still need to change it up now and then. The other day I was assembling a slideshow for Babble and came across this amazing looking dish. As I mentioned last week, I love roasted garlic (sorry, Edward Cullen), and practically eat it like candy. What I find so unique about this recipe is how the strong flavors of raspberries, roasted garlic, and cashews mingle together so well. No one item cancels out the rest. It really is a symphony of sweet, crunchy, salt, and nutty which is exactly how I like to compose my salads.

Going against the idea of flavoring strong with more strong, the dressing is a very light lemony affair with some crushed fresh raspberries and that is about it. All in all, these salad is a pleasure to make and fun to eat. It is a happy departure from the tried and true without going too far in the other direction. This is definitely being added to our everyday repertoire this spring. I can already imagine how good it would taste with strawberries, blueberries, or all three!