Winter Sunshine Salad | Warm Maple Bourbon Dressing Recipe
A salad to eat on a cold winter's day. Winter Sunshine Salad is crisp baby greens tender sweet potatoes, meaty chestnuts, and a burst of sweet pomegranates drizzled with warm maple bourbon dressing.
How to Make the Best Winter Sunshine Salad | Warm Maple Bourbon Dressing
Winter Sunshine Salad is the perfect celebration of seasonal flavors—bright, warming, and deeply satisfying. The combination of crisp baby greens and tender roasted sweet potatoes creates a wonderful textural contrast, while the meaty chestnuts add a rich, earthy note. The burst of tart and sweet pomegranate seeds throughout brings a pop of color and freshness that makes this salad feel both elegant and nourishing.
What really sets this salad apart is the warm maple bourbon dressing—a silky emulsion that brings together the deep sweetness of maple syrup with the complexity of bourbon and the brightness of apple cider vinegar. Drizzled warm over the salad, it creates a beautiful harmony of flavors that feels indulgent without being heavy. This is the kind of salad that proves you can eat well even on the coldest winter days.
Serve this Winter Sunshine Salad as a stunning side dish for a holiday meal, or make it the star of a light lunch. It’s impressive enough to impress guests but simple enough to prepare on any weeknight when you want something both comforting and refreshing.
Winter Sunshine Salad | Warm Maple Bourbon Dressing
A salad to eat on a cold winter's day. Winter Sunshine Salad is crisp baby greens tender sweet potatoes, meaty chestnuts, and a burst of sweet pomegranates drizzled with warm maple bourbon dressing.
Ingredients
Roasted Vegetables
Salad Components
Warm Maple Bourbon Dressing
Instructions
Roast the Sweet Potatoes and Chestnuts
- Peel and dice the sweet potato. Toss with olive oil and salt and spread in an even layer on a sheet pan.
- Place sheet pan in a pre-heated 425°F oven. Roast for 40 minutes.
- In the meantime, prepare the chestnuts. Rinse and dry well. Using a sharp paring knife, make a 1/8 of an inch deep incision on the skin and cut across the chestnut. This will help the steam escape during cooking so you don't have exploding chestnuts in your oven, and for peeling afterwards.
- After the sweet potatoes have roasted for 20 minutes, add the chestnuts to the pan and let cook for the remaining 20 minutes.
- After cooking, let cool for 5 minutes and peel off the shell.
Assemble the Salad
- In a large serving dish, add greens. Using a mandoline, shave the shallots over the salad greens.
- Top with roasted sweet potato and pomegranate seeds.
- Using your hands, crumble the chestnuts in small pieces over the salad.
Prepare the Dressing and Serve
- In a small saucepan over medium heat, whisk together maple syrup, bourbon, apple cider vinegar, and dijion mustard until combined.
- Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking to emulsify the dressing. Keep warm on low heat.
- Drizzle the salad with the warm maple bourbon dressing and lightly toss before serving.