Apple & Cheddar Frico Salad
Fricos are basically toasted cheese. If you’ve ever made a grilled cheese and some of the cheese has oozed onto the pan and turned crispy—that’s a frico. This salad was born from that idea and the old-school, beloved flavor combination of apples and cheddar. The cheddar fricos take the place of croutons. The apples purposefully overwhelm the greens. And some smoked almonds provide the perfect, “Oooh, what’s that?!?”
- 1 c. grated sharp cheddar cheese, loosely packed
- 2 tbsp. unseasoned panko bread crumbs
- 2 tbsp. fresh-squeezed orange juice
- 2 tbsp. apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp. pure honey or maple syrup
- 3 tbsp. extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tsp. mild Dijon mustard
- 1/2 large or 1 small garlic clove, grated or minced
- 1/4 tsp. kosher salt
- 1/8 tsp. fresh ground black pepper
- 3 small or 2 large crisp, sweet apples (mix of colors and varieties if you like), cubed
- 1 large, firm (but not hard) avocado, cubed (see TIP A)
- 1/3 c. (heaping) smoked and salted almonds, coarsely chopped
- 4 oz. fresh crisp, baby lettuce leaves (your choice)
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Line a large, rimmed baking sheet with parchment paper. Combine the grated cheddar and panko in a small bowl and gently toss with your hands to evenly distribute. Use a 1-teaspoon measuring spoon to drop small heaping mounds of the cheddar-panko mixture across the lined baking sheet. Leave 1.5-2 inches between each mound. Transfer the baking sheet to a 350° pre-heated oven for 7-8 minutes. The cheddar mounds should flatten and turn lace-like and crispy. When done, immediately remove the pan from the oven and let cool for 5 minutes. Then transfer the crisps to a plate lined with clean paper towel until ready to use.
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Meanwhile, whisk together all of the vinaigrette ingredients (orange juice through fresh ground black pepper) in a small bowl or combine them in a mason jar and shake. Set aside.
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Put the cubed apples and avocado in a large serving bowl and immediately toss in a few splashes of the vinaigrette to prevent from browning. Then add the greens over top and drizzle with the remaining vinaigrette (or as much as you like, sometimes less is more). Gently toss the ingredients with your hands to evenly distribute. Sprinkle half of the almonds and a handful of the fricos over top. Lightly flutter the salad with your fingertips to work these ingredients down into the salad. Then sprinkle the remaining almonds and fricos over top (or you can serve some extra fricos on the side). Enjoy!
TIP A: Ohhh, the avocado conundrum. Do you buy one rock hard and then let it soften at home or do you squeeze every avocado in the grocery store in search of THE perfect one? Then, what if it's brown inside once you get it home? The answers to these questions are not straightforward. My advice: if you're doing your shopping in advance, buy a rock hard one that appears to have healthy skin and, more importantly, an in tact stem point (no mold, separation, or mushiness). Let it ripen at home (dark place, on the countertop) for 1-2 days for the perfect softball-like firmness for this salad. You want it firm enough to hold-up in the salad, but not so hard that you can't easily halve it or release the pit. If you go this route, you can usually safely buy just the 1 avocado called for in the recipe. Alternatively, if you go the route of buying the perfect store-ripened avocado to make the salad today, then purchase a spare. In my experience, store-ripened avocados are far more risky than home-ripened avocados (a lot more handling). If it turns out that both are perfect (no brown spots), then you can always double-down on the avocado in the salad.