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This festive Christmas Salad is made with mixed greens, oranges, apple, pomegranate seeds, feta, and pecans. It’s sweet, salty, crunchy, and a beautiful addition to your holiday table!
Looking for more holiday salads? Try this roasted vegetable salad, winter fruit salad, and pear and blue cheese salad.
If you’re a long time follower of mine then you’re aware of how much I love a good salad! However, I’m picky when it comes to my salad.
Don’t serve me a bowl of lettuce and a couple carrots in the mix. I want a salad that’s loaded with color, texture, and flavor. The more toppings the better in my opinion.
This colorful Christmas Salad will be a welcomed pop of color and freshness on your holiday dinner or even brunch table. It’s got sweet and salty flavors going on, not to mention plenty of crunch.
Ingredients For Christmas Salad
Mixed greens – Mixed greens are often a combination baby spinach, baby lettuce, chicory and arugula. They have a delicate texture and flavor that works well with sweet and salty toppings. Mixed green can be swapped with baby kale, regular curly kale, or spinach.
Oranges – I used navel oranges, but you could use blood oranges or Cara Cara oranges. Orange segments can also be replaced with mandarin oranges, clementines, or tangerines.
Apple – You’ll want to use a crisp, sweet variety of apple. I recommend Honeycrisp, Cosmic Crisp, Envy, or Pink Lady. Alternatively, you can swap apples with pears.
Pomegranate seeds – Also called pomegranate arils. They give the salad a wonderful sweet and tart pop of flavor.
Dried cranberries – Dried cranberries add a nice sweet, chewy flavor and texture that contrasts well with the crunchy ingredients.
Feta – Buy a block of feta and crumble it yourself for the best flavor and texture. Substitute the feta with goat cheese, cubes of manchego cheese, ricotta salata, or mini mozzarella balls if you prefer.
Pecans – Toast the pecans for the best flavor. For a substitution, try toasted walnuts, pistachios, and for a nut-free option, pepitas. You could also used candied nuts if you want something sweet.
Champagne vinegar – Champagne vinegar has a mild, slightly sweet taste. It’s less sharp than white wine vinegar, however, you can use that as a substitution. Balsamic vinegar or white balsamic vinegar will also work well with this salad.
Honey – The sweetener for the vinaigrette. You can substitute with maple syrup.
Shallot – I love using shallots in vinaigrettes and salad dressing because the flavor is less intense than a yellow onion.
Olive oil – The emulsifier for the vinaigrette. Use a good quality extra virgin olive oil for the best flavor.
How To Make Christmas Salad
Making this Christmas salad recipe is a piece of cake! It may look fancy, but honestly there’s not much work required, especially if you take a couple shortcuts.
I used a round platter for the salad and put a round bowl in the middle for the vinaigrette. This allowed me to arrange the salad so it looked like a wreath. It’s an optional step, but it does make for a beautiful presentation. You can also just use a salad bowl.
To make the holiday salad arrange the mixed greens on the platter or add them to a serving bowl. Thinly slice an apple and fan the slices out on top of the greens.
Segment two oranges. To do this simply cut the peel and any of the white pith from the orange. Use a sharp knife and cut between the membranes. The segments should fall right out. Don’t throw out the membranes that are left behind, you’ll use the juice for the vinaigrette.
Arrange the segments on top of the spring mix along with the toasted pecans, crumbled feta cheese, and dried cranberries. Scatter the pomegranate seeds throughout the salad.
To save time you can buy pomegranate seeds in a container in the refrigerated section of the produce area. They are more expensive, but work great in a pinch. I also recommend buying a pre-washed container of mixed greens to save time.
The final step is to make the citrus vinaigrette. Squeeze all the remaining juice from the leftover orange membranes. You should end up with about 3 tablespoons give or take.
Add the champagne vinegar, minced shallot, honey, olive oil, salt and pepper to the orange juice. Whisk together until combined and taste to make sure it doesn’t need more salt or pepper. Serve the vinaigrette alongside the salad or in the middle if you making a wreath shaped presentation.
Tips For The Best Salad
- Use an apple that is sweet and crisp such as a honeycrisp, pink lady, or golden delicious.
- Take the time to toast the pecans. It brings out the nuttiness and flavor of them.
- Save time and buy a tub of pre-washed mixed greens. If you don’t mind spending the extra money you can buy a container of pomegranate seeds versus buying a whole pomegranate and breaking it down yourself.
- Don’t add the toppings to the salad very far ahead of time. I wouldn’t do it more than an hour in advance. Mixed greens are delicate and will get soggy quickly from the moisture in the fruit.
Christmas Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Salad
- 5 ounces mixed greens
- 2 oranges, peeled and segmented
- 1 apple, sliced thin
- 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries
- 1/3 cup crumbled feta
- 1/4 cup toasted chopped pecans
Citrus vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoon orange juice, squeeze juice from the remains of the oranges used in the salad
- 1 tablespoon champagne vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon minced shallot
- 1 1/2 tablespoons olive oil
- Salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Combine all of the ingredients for the citrus vinaigrette in a jar or bowl. Shake or whisk until thoroughly combined and then set aside.
- Arrange the mixed greens onto a round serving platter with the bowl of vinaigrette in the center. Or add them to a serving bowl.
- Top the mixed greens with the apple slices, orange segments, pomegranate seeds, feta, pecans, and dried cranberries. Serve immediately or cover and refrigerate until ready to serve. Don't make the salad to far in advance or the mixed greens will be soggy.
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
Make-Ahead Instructions
This Christmas salad recipe can be prepped ahead of time, but I don’t recommend assembling it until just before serving or it will get soggy.
The apples can be sliced and oranges segmented a day ahead of time. Squeeze the extra orange juice from the rind onto the apple slices to prevent them from browning. Remove the pomegranate arils from the pomegranate several days in advance. Store the fruit in separate airtight containers in the fridge until you’re ready to assemble the salad.
The vinaigrette can be made up to 3 days in advance and the pecans can be toasted up to a week in advance or even a month if you store them in the freezer.
I never even got to the making it pretty….I just loved the taste of it. Will keep in my faves pile!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it!