Panera's Strawberry Poppyseed Salad

Panera's Strawberry Poppyseed Salad is one of my favorite salads ever. If this salad was a baseball player, it would hit for the cycle on a regular basis. If this salad was a poker hand, it'd be a royal flush. If this salad were a movie, it wouldn't be a sequel, or a remake: it'd be a complete original.

The salad comes off like fireworks, but in your mouth. Fruit! Protein! Crunch! When you look at the salad through the little window of their take-out box, you'll see red, blue, green, yellow, and chicken. It's a sweet salad, which caused me to nickname it "the Candy salad." This is the only salad I have ever bestowed a nickname.

There are four kinds of fruit in this salad: pineapple, oranges, blueberries and strawberries. These are mixed in well with the Romaine lettuce and the chicken. A dressing dotted with poppyseeds adds a certain tanginess to the whole meal. A smattering of cashew nuts adds a great crunch.

For the calorie-watchers, this salad clocks in at 340 calories, with 25g of protein. It's a filling and satisfying salad that tastes great. It only appears on the Panera menu in the Summer, so give it a try.