Lawn Mower Salad!

One of our Sweet Tea and Cornbread friends wrote and asked if I had the recipe for the "Lawn Mower Salad".  I had not really heard of the this salad, but now that she asked, I was intrigued.  I found a few recipes, but not many.  I ended up combining a couple of them and then adding some of my own ingredients.  I took this to my one of 'The Sister's' birthday luncheons and got the two thumbs up from everyone, so it was a success.  

 For those who don't have a clue what I am referring to,  my mother has five sisters and they have a lunch in honor of each of their birthdays.  This one was for my mother's September birthday.  They are all wonderful southern cooks, so the food is unbelievably good and very plentiful at these gatherings.  I will be featuring a few new recipes we had that day later this week, so be watching! 

 

This is what you will need for this salad:

1 (12 oz.) bag broccoli slaw mix

1 bunch of green onions, sliced including some of the green blades

1 cup salted cashew pieces

1 cup Craisins dried cranberries (can use raisins)

1/2 cup oil (whatever you prefer, vegetable, canola or extra virgin olive oil)

1/2 cup sugar

1/4 cup rice wine or cider vinegar

1/4 cup water

1 tsp. soy sauce

2 pkgs. chicken flavored Ramen noodles, crushed with seasoning packets reserved

In a salad bowl toss together the broccoli slaw mix, green onions, cashews and Craisins.  

In a separate bowl, whisk together the oil, sugar, vinegar, water, soy sauce, and Ramen seasoning packets.  Whisk until the sugar and seasoning mix is dissolved.

Pour this mixture over the salad and toss.  Refrigerate for at least an hour.  You can prepare this several hours ahead of time.  The salad just gets tastier.

Right before serving,  sprinkle in the crushed Ramen noodles and toss all of the ingredients so that they all have some of the dressing on them.   If you do not want the noodles crunchy and like them softer, add them before refrigerating.   I like them with a little crunch.