This fresh, colorful, veggie-loaded Mixed Greens Salad with Steam Fried Veggies and Lemon Basil Vinaigrette is simple-to-make, loaded with flavor and perfect for holiday entertaining!

Disclosure: This post and recipe were created in collaboration with Dole Fresh Fruit and Fresh Vegetables. As always, all opinions, ideas and text are my own. Thanks for supporting the sponsors that allow me to create new and special content like this for Tasty Yummies.

This recipe is not be far off from the usual fare you will find around here, but the inspiration that got me here might be. 

Let’s take a big big step back, come along with me. We are going all the way back to 1928. Disney’s Mickey Mouse made first on-screen debut in Steamboat Willie, a seven-and-a-half-minute animated short film that would become a classic, as it introduced to the world, one of the most iconic characters of our time!

Another American classic, we all know and love, Dole, is collaborating once again with Disney to celebrate Mickey’s 90th Anniversary, highlighting fresh takes on iconic recipes and bringing brand new inspired dishes honoring a True Original and the two brand’s long-time friendship.

To know me and my husband is to know that Disneyland and Mickey Mouse have become a part of our own story. When we moved to Southern California nearly years ago, before the moving truck ever hit the road, before we even had the keys to our new home, we had our Disneyland annual passes in our hands. On our trip out to California to find our house, we committed that once we found where we would be living, assuming we had a few days left in the trip, we would be “Going to Disneyland”.

Over the years since we have lived here, we have celebrated birthdays and anniversaries at Disneyland, we have taken nieces, nephews, parents and friends. We even created original artwork for Disneyland in collaboration with their WonderGround Gallery in Downtown Disney, where we silkscreen printed the posters live, in front of the gallery. 

Disneyland and Mickey Mouse are synonymous with our Southern California life, so of course I was excited to be a part of DOLE’s celebration of Mickey Mouse. Dole and Disney have a rich history of working together toward happier, healthier families, and encouraging kids of all ages to eat better and be more active, so this celebration of Mickey’s 90th has come together in a big and tasty way and I am honored to be a part of it.

For me, I wanted to stay true to the food I always create and share with all of you, so no Mickey Mouse cupcakes or decadent Disneyland treats, I wanted to find a subtle a way to pay homage to ‘ol Steamboat Willie and his humble beginnings and really highlighting Dole’s beautiful fresh produce. In fact right know you can actually find DOLE® fresh fruits and vegetables featuring Mickey Mouse throughout the decades. How fun is that? Around here I have been referring to this as the Steamboat Willie Salad and it features one of my favorite ways to prepare fresh vegetables – Steam Frying. Rather than the simple steamed veggies prevalent in the 1920 and 30’s – we are taking steam cooking up a notch.

You all know that I am not anti-fat by any means, I think healthful fats play a very important role in a healthy, well balanced diet, so this isn’t about reducing fats and oils at all, steam frying is merely a simple, easy and flavorful way to prepare fresh vegetables. It takes the classic steamed vegetables up a notch in a fun and flavorful way. What I especially love is you can prepare the veggies ahead of time and serve them on the finished salad cold or room temperature, if you’d like, which makes this salad perfect for your holiday entertaining. No taking up space in the oven for roasting, no messy oil-splattering as you pan fry and no mushy, boring steamed veggies. Ready in no time, a beautiful, center-piece salad, loaded with nutrient-dense, colorful veggies – truly the best of all worlds.

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