Are you looking for a healthier option for your holiday meal? Try out this easy and delicious Christmas salad recipe! Packed with nutritious ingredients and bursting with festive flavors, it’s the perfect addition to any holiday spread.
The flavors of the fresh citrus, salad greens, and pomegranate meld so well together, especially with a honey mustard vinaigrette, making it the perfect side dish. I love to serve it with roasted rosemary potatoes and New York Strip Steak.
Ingredient Notes and Substitutions
See the complete list of ingredients on the recipe card below.
- Spring greens: or mixed greens like arugula, baby spinach, baby greens
- Nuts: almonds, pecans, pistachios, pine nuts, and walnuts.
- Cheese: I like feta because it works well in this salad, but you can substitute Parmesan, goat, or blue cheese.
- Oranges: Preferably seedless mandarins. They are easy to peel, full of flavor, and bite-sized.
- Pomegranate seeds: also known as pomegranate arils. If you can not find them, try dried cranberries or blueberries.
How to Make Christmas Salad
This is the summary version; see the recipe card below for the complete list of ingredients and the instructions.
- Whisk the minced garlic, champagne vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in the olive oil while whisking continuously.
- Add your spring greens, sliced almonds, feta cheese, mandarin oranges, and pomegranate arils to a large bowl. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.
Make It Ahead
You can make the honey mustard champagne vinaigrette up to 2 days in advance; however, remove it from the refrigerator about 45 minutes before serving to warm to room temperature, then whisk or shake well.
Prep the oranges and pomegranate arils up to 24 hours in advance and store them in an airtight container in the fridge. Assemble the salad up to 1 hour before, but do not toss with the vinaigrette until ready to serve.
Preparation Tips For The Best Christmas Salad
- I encourage you to use fresh, seedless mandarin oranges for optimal taste, but you could also use canned ones in a pinch.
- Pomegranate arils are just the red jewels found inside a pomegranate. They contain a sweet nectar surrounding a white seed in the center. Around late November through December, grocery stores will have pomegranates available, and some stores may even have the arils already removed and available for sale.
- This salad is equally delicious with a honey-poppyseed dressing.
More Salad Recipes
Christmas Salad Recipe
Ingredients
Honey Mustard Vinaigrette
- 2 cloves minced garlic
- 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 2 tablespoons Dijon Mustard
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon fresh ground black pepper
- ¼ cup olive oil
Christmas Salad
- 12 ounces fresh spring greens
- ⅔ cup sliced almonds
- ⅔ cup feta cheese
- 4 seedless mandarin oranges peeled and segmented
- 1 pomegranate seeded
Instructions
- Whisk together minced garlic, champagne vinegar, Dijon mustard, honey, salt, and pepper in a small bowl. Slowly drizzle in olive oil, whisking continuously.
- Add spring green, sliced almonds, feta cheese, mandarin oranges, and pomegranate arils in a large bowl. Drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Nutrition
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Jupiter Hadley
This salad sounds so birght and vibrant, perfect for Christmas dinner which is so meat heavy. Thank you so much for sharing this!
Beth Pierce
My pleasure, Jupiter!
Yeah Lifestyle
This Christmas salad is delicious. It is so fresh and tasty and has a really lovely and refreshing crunch to it.
Anna Young
Looks delicious and so healthy. I plan to make it for Christmas dinner – are the almond slices toasted?
Beth Pierce
You can certainly toast them. That would add even more flavor.
Glass Mosaic Tiles
The salad is really Christmassy, I LOVE IT! The colors are perfect and it tastes amazing.
Talya Stone
I love the idea of a fresh Christmas salad especially. I will probably make this for our Xmas Eve buffet!
Amanda
I come back to this recipe time and time again. It’s always a hit. It’s like a grown-up honey mustard that never fails ❤️❤️ When I don’t have Pom, I substitute mango, grapes, craisins or skip altogether.
Beth Pierce
So glad that you like it Amanda and thanks for the great tips!
Linda Latta
Why not recommend crumbled chèvre (goat cheese) instead of feta. It makes sense. Baby spinach instead of mixed lettuce and strawberries instead of oranges. Just a thought.
Barbara Kreuzmann
This is one of the best salads I have ever eaten. I added a head of romaine lettuce to the package of Rhine mix that an organic farm in Cincinnati area sells and there was enough dressing to handle the added lettuce. I know my daughter and I will make it again.
Beth Pierce
Thanks Barbara! We had this salad last night for dinner. It is quite yummy. So glad that you and your daughters like it.
Heather Rinaldi
Looking to make rugs for Christmas Eve; can you suggest a honey poppyseed recipe that you mention as an alternative? TIA
Beth Pierce
Here is my poppy seed dressing. If you like sub 3-4 tablespoons honey for the sugar. Merry Christmas.
Erika
I’ve made this so many times! The only thing I do differently is to use almonds without toasting. I just grab them straight out of the bag! I’ve also added blackberries, and swaped Cara Cara oranges for Mandarin. Every time it’s SO delicious! Love this salad!
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Erika! I am so glad that you like the salad. Yum on the blueberries.
Raegan
Hi! I’m excited to try this! Do you think I could sub in Clementine slices for orange slices? I have a lot of those right now!
Thank you!
Beth Pierce
Yes that would fine.