Harvest Turkey Salad with Cherry Vinaigrette is spectacular! Along with salad greens it has sliced turkey meat, dried cherries, sliced pears, toasted pecans, and in place of the Gorgonzola cheese I substituted Feta cheese because we like it better. It also comes with its own cherry balsamic vinaigrette which is outstanding. The dressing uses cherry preserves in the base. We loved it. So did our company!

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John was telling me about this delicious salad at Panera Bread last week so I wanted to give it a whirl. I was going to wing it for both salad and dressing based on his description, but then I found this copycat recipe online and decided to give it a try.

It was fabulous! We loved this delicious salad and I will be making it again and again. I used leftover turkey breast meat from Thanksgiving dinner, but sliced grilled or rotisserie chicken will work just as well. I found this version online here.

If you are looking for new, fresh ways to eat salad, I invite you to try this tasty recipe. You won’t be sorry. You can even substitute bacon or go meatless if you desire and the recipe will still work wonderfully. To get a little more color in the salad you may want to use a pear with a red peel, or add diced red onion or diced red or orange peppers.

When I initially posted this recipe in December 2012, I was still using an iPhone for a camera, so my pictures were grainy, dark and less than pleasing. Because of that, I’ve been remaking all of my first year blog recipes and I recently remade this recipe (December 2015) after using turkey for Christmas dinner.

My husband prefers white meat so I used leftover turkey breast recipe for this recipe. This easy and simple recipe is quite delicious. Substitute rotisserie chicken or baked or grilled boneless chicken breast slices if desired.

Harvest Turkey Salad with Cherry Vinaigrette has salad greens with lots of turkey, dried cherries, diced pears, toasted walnuts, and feta cheese. It’s delicious.

This salad is pretty quick and easy to make up. It’s great with either leftover turkey or chicken.

While we used feta cheese, use Gorgonzola if you prefer since that’s closer to the original recipe.

Here’s what I did.

I used these ingredients. The turkey was leftover from Christmas dinner. The pecans came from a friend who sends them to us every year.

Slice pears. Coat each piece in lemon juice. Set on paper towels to dry. Set aside.

Place spring mix in a salad bowl. Top with a bag of romaine lettuce. Add dried cherries, roasted pecans, pears, turkey and feta or gorgonzola cheese. Refrigerate until ready to serve.

I used these ingredients to make the cherry vinaigrette.

To make the cherry vinaigrette: place the balsamic vinegar into a saucepan and heat over medium heat. Add garlic.

Add sugar. Bring mixture to a simmer until it condenses in half – about 10 – 15 minutes. Add cherry preserves. Cook one minute, remove from heat.

Stir in red wine vinegar and olive oil. Add salt and pepper.

Stir the salad dressing ingredients and pour into a carafe or cruet.

Serve Panera Bread’s Harvest Turkey Salad with Cherry Vinaigrette with your favorite bread or rolls.

Harvest Turkey Salad with Cherry Vinaigrette is a refreshing salad that’s great served as a company salad.

Here’s the recipe.

HARVEST TURKEY SALAD WITH CHERRY VINAIGRETTE

(Adapted from copycat version of Panera Bread’s Roasted Turkey Harvest Salad from panerabreadathome. blogspot.com.

Harvest Turkey Salad with Cherry Vinaigrette is not only gorgeous to look at, it’s delightful to eat!

You may want to try a bite of this elegant salad!

You may also enjoy these delicious recipes!

Pear Salad with Glazed Walnuts

Spinach, Apple and Bacon Salad with Sugar-Glazed Walnuts

Pear Salad with Ginger Vinaigrette