Winter Salad

This colorful, flavor-packed salad is a perfect balance of fresh, crisp greens, sweet and tangy fruits, crunchy nuts, and creamy cheese, all tossed in a zesty, maple-dijon dressing.

Prep Time: 25 minutes
Total Time: 25 minutes
Yield: serves about 5-6 as a main or 8-10 as a side 1x

Ingredients

Scale

Salad-

4 cups kale, chopped thin, large stems and ribs removed (cut then measure)

½ lemon, juiced

2 tablespoons olive oil

3 cups spinach, chopped small

1 ½ cups thinly sliced brussel sprouts

1 cup microgreens, optional

2 medium apples, cored and diced

1 cup toasted pecans

2/3 cup crumbled feta cheese

2 cups butternut squash, roasted and then chilled

½ cup pomegranate arils

2 oranges, supremed and segmented (alternatively you can use mandarin orange segments)

¼ cup red onion, thinly sliced and chopped

Dressing-

1/2 cup apple cider vinegar

1 ½ tablespoons dijon mustard

5 tablespoons maple syrup

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 teaspoon pepper

1 cup olive oil

Instructions

Salad-

Toss the kale in a large mixing bowl. Squeeze the lemon juice over and drizzle the olive oil over the kale. Use your hands to massage and rub the kale as you toss it.

Add the spinach, brussel sprouts, microgreens, apples, and pecans. Toss together and then add the feta, butternut squash, pomegranate and red onion. Toss again. Finally layer the oranges on top, being gentle with them as they are more delicate.

Dressing-

Make the dressing by shaking all the ingredients in a mason jar or whisking together in a liquid measuring cup.

Drizzle the dressing, starting with only half over the top and toss again. If you want more dressing, drizzle more. Alternatively, you can dress the salad on individual plates.

Notes

Step-by-step pictures and Frequently Asked Questions below recipe card.

This salad doesn’t save well beyond about 8 hours. It gets soggy. If you’re not feeding a lot of people at once I suggest making it all up and not dressing the whole bowl but drizzle the dressing on individual portions.

This salad is really easy to customize. Don’t want to supreme an orange? Use little mandarin orange wedges. Don’t want to seed a pomegranate? Use dried cranberries. Don’t like brussel sprouts? Use cabbage. Don’t like feta cheese? Use goat cheese instead. Don’t have any pecans? Use slivered or sliced almonds instead.

Add shredded chicken for added protein.

Make sure you massage the kale nicely or it will be hard and bitter. Massaged kale is really delicious.

Keywords: Winter Salad, Pomegranate salad, salad with apples, christmas recipes, salad dressing, citrus salad

Find it online: https://acupofcream.com/winter-salad/