Smoked Turkey Salad with Raspberries (or Strawberry-Spinach Salad with Hot Pepper Dressing)

It seems like once or twice a year, I will receive in the mail a random publication from Taste of Home.

You see, during the height of my cooking-contest-entering-obsessive-compulsiveness, I submitted countless recipes to the Taste of Home website for various and sundry contests.

Sometimes I receive a cookbook which features one of my recipes. Sometimes it is a magazine. Most of the time, this is the sole prize—being featured in one of their publications and a free copy of said publication.   (Just what I need, more magazines to add to my stacks.) One of my recipes was once featured on the cover and I did win $400 in 2011 for a split pea soup.

It has been so long since I have submitted anything, that I was totally surprised last month when I received a copy of the April/May edition of Simple & Delicious, a Taste of Home magazine. These gifts usually don’t come with any sort of explanation as to why I am receiving them which prompts me to go on a scavenger hunt through the book or magazine to see where my recipe is mentioned.

I found my featured recipe on page 15:  Smoked Turkey Salad with Raspberries.Wow.

I didn’t even remember this recipe at all.   So, on another scavenger hunt I went.

I was so OCD about contesting that I kept a spread sheet of all my entries.   I found that in September of 2010, I submitted “Strawberry-Spinach Salad with Hot Pepper Dressing” to Taste of Home.   I was pretty organized so I actually found my original recipe from five years ago.   I thought it was interesting how TOH adapted it.

Here is the original:

Strawberry-Spinach Salad with Hot Pepper Dressing

1 T. jalapeno or hot pepper jelly
1 T. Dijon mustard
2 T. red wine vinegar
1/2 c. extra virgin olive oil
4 cups baby spinach, washed and drained
8 oz. thin sliced smoke turkey breast
4 oz. goat cheese,  crumbled
1/4 c. fresh basil leaves, packed and chopped
1 cup sliced fresh strawberries

Place jelly, mustard and vinegar in a blender.  Pulse to blend.  While blender is running, slowly add olive oil.

Arrange four individual serving plates and divide the spinach on each plate (1 cup each).  Roll the turkey breast slices together and slice.  Divide turkey on each plate.  Arrange about 1 oz. of goat cheese on each plate and sprinkle with basil.  Finally, arrange strawberries on each plate and drizzle with 1-2 tablespoons of dressing.  Serve.

Personally, I advocate my original blender method for making the dressing, especially since the jelly can be a bit clumpy. I think their substitution of the raspberries was interesting as well.

Whichever recipe you choose, whether it is the TOH raspberry version or my original (or maybe you will make your own changes), I hope you try this.

Let me know what you think?  Raspberries or strawberries…..blender or whisk….  (And, those Garlic Pork Tortilla Rolls sound pretty tasty, too.)