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The contest is now closed. Thank you for entering. We will draw a name and announce the winner soon!

Wendy’s Canada recently added 3 new chef-inspired flavours to its permanent salad menu: Asian Cashew Salad, BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad and Taco Supremo Salad. To be honest, my guilty pleasure fast food joint is McDonald’s, so I rarely go to Wendy’s. But frequently seeing its commercials on TV and learning about this new line of salads, their food doesn’t look half bad. I was intrigued. That’s why when I was offered to try one of the salads, I decided to go for it.

And I opted for the classic BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad. You may think it’s a safe choice but the use of applewood-smoked bacon caught my eyes. Who can say no to bacon? And look how much bacon you get in the salad:

This full size salad was huge! It’s packed with lots of ingredients: roasted corn, tomatoes, shredded cheddar, a blend of lettuce and a whole grilled chicken breast. I was glad to see that the greens were not wilted and everything tasted fresh. There was a barbecue sauce drizzled on top of the bacon pieces, which was a bit sweet. Combining with the BBQ ranch dressing, which also had honey and brown sugar, the sauces on this salad were more on the sweet side for me. Therefore I would recommend starting with a small amount of dressing then add more as needed; otherwise, it may get too sweet and you can’t revert it.

For $8.49 I thought it’s not too bad as a lunch option. Looking at the nutrition details, though, the BBQ Ranch Chicken Salad has higher calorie and sodium count thanks to the addition of bacon. The sacrifice you have to make for something good haha. On the other hand, the Asian Cashew Chicken Salad is lower in calorie and sodium, and with the Asian spicy flair it sounds like a decent choice. I might give it a try some other day.

Asian Cashew Chicken Salad (image provided by Wendy’s)

Giveaway

Now is the chance to try these salads yourself! We’re giving away $20 worth of Wendy’s gift cards to one lucky winner. To enter:

• Leave a blog comment below and tell us what your go-to salad is, it could be from any restaurant or even home-made! (1 entry)
• Like VanFoodies on Facebook and Like any of the posts (there will be a few) related to this contest (1 entry)
• Follow @vanfoodies on Twitter & tweet the following (1 entry)

I entered to win $20 @WendysCanada gift cards via @vanfoodies http://bit.ly/NSaM9l

Contest Deadline: Wednesday, April 2, 2014 at 11:59pm. Winner will be chosen at random and contacted within a week. Gift cards are only valid in Canada. Good luck!

Contest ends on April 2, 2014 at 11:59pm PST. A winner will be drawn at random and will be awarded the prize upon correctly answering a skill-testing question. The prize is a pair of $10 Wendy’s Canada gift card. Gift cards are only valid in Canada. Approximately retail value of the prize is $20.

Disclosure: The salad has been provided to me free of charge but the opinions are my own.