Spring Salad with Dark Chocolate Cardamom Dressing

The Albertson's market in my neighborhood has been having ridiculous sales this past week, which is how I ended up with a bag of spring salad mix (only $1!) and a large amount of grapes (only $1 a pound! OMG!) I'm not really a salad person, but I've been making the effort to eat healthier as of late, so I bought some. The only real question was what I should do with it. I have a generic tomato balsamic dressing in the 'fridge, but that seemed kind of blase tonight. So I decided to combine salad, something I don't really like, with dark chocolate, something I really really like. I also added a small amount of Cardamom to the dressing because it seems to go well with chilled dishes.







Ingredients:

2 Cups Spring Salad Mix

3 Heaping Tablespoons Dark or Bittersweet Chocolate Chips, plus 6 individual chips for garnish

3 Tablespoons Olive Oil

1 Tablespoon Sunflower Seeds

1/2 Cup Red Grapes

1/8 Teaspoon Ground Cardamom



Place olive oil, cardamom and 3 Tbsp chocolate chips in a small saucepan. Melt together over lowest heat setting, stirring constantly to avoid burning the chocolate. If you have a double-boiler on hand, use that to melt the chocolate while still making sure to stir constantly.



Once the chocolate chips have melted completely, remove from heat and transfer to a small bowl. Refrigerate for an hour until chilled.



In a large bowl, toss together the spring salad, sunflower seeds, and red grapes. Place on a dish. Drizzle with the dark chocolate cardamom dressing. Crush 6 individual chips with the back of a spoon or a meat tenderizer and sprinkle the chocolate crumbles over the salad as a garnish.