Chopped Autumn Salad

I served this salad at the baby shower I hosted last weekend.  I needed something that would easily multiply for a crowd, yet be easy to make and serve.  It needed to look good, too.  The salad scored on all fronts.

Variations of this salad exist all over the Internet and Pinterest.  It's not so much a recipe as it is a mixture of various ingredients.  It is easily adaptable to each person's tastes.  For the shower I used the following ingredients, all chopped in bite-size bits, so we didn't need knives.

Romaine lettuce
Cooked chicken (ours was grilled)
Apples
Pears
Blueberries
Dried cranberries
Candied pecans (recipe to come, so good!)
Blue cheese crumbles
Pomegranate seeds

The dressing is a mixture of poppy seed dressing and balsamic vinaigrette.  I used a ratio of 2/3 poppy seed to 1/3 balasamic.  For this event I used bottled dressing but homemade would obviously be wonderful! You can also substitute a few tablespoons of quality balsamic vinegar in lieu of the prepared vinaigrette.

The first six ingredients were tossed with the dressing.  Each salad was garnished with candied pecans, the blue cheese crumbles and pomegranate seeds. 

I loved this salad.  There was a combination of sweet and salty in each bite, as well as soft and crunchy.