This festive and vibrant cranberry vinaigrette creates an amazing holiday salad with its bright red color! With the addition of some delicious greens, goat cheese, and nuts, you have an incredible green salad to enjoy!
Paleo, Whole30, and perfect for any holiday gathering, this festive cranberry vinaigrette salad is a treat!
Sweet, tart, crunchy, and creamy. A salad with all my favorites!
With the new year, we are all tightening our resolve, and my family is no different.
Salads like these always make it easier to get your greens in, even in the winter when my ayurvedic tendencies say no!
You’ll love the sweet and salty combination, and the creamy dairy free ‘cheese’ makes it all sing.
The dressing is vibrant and pink, and quite festive!
Enjoy, here’s to our sugar detox!!
Leftover cranberry sauce from Thanksgiving to use up?
Then use THAT in place of the fresh cranberries for this salad dressing! Just leave the additional honey out and taste before adding more!
Strawberry vinaigrette?
In the summer month, cranberries are not as readily available, so I turn to a seasonal favorite: strawberries!
Use strawberries or raspberries instead of the cranberries in the vinaigrette (leave out the stevia then), and use sliced strawberries to replace the apples, or use both!
Additional salad toppings to consider w/ cranberry vinaigrette:
The key to an interesting and delicious salads is to play with all the toppings! Here are some additions to play around with!
- I adore adding chopped nuts, and these spiced rosemary maple pecans would be magical!
- sharp cheeses of all varieties! Goat cheese is a favorite! Or these molten hot almond crusted goat cheese medallions…swoon! Here is a vegan creamy cashew cheese.
- Make this a full meal by cooking up some quinoa and tossing it with everything else!
- My roasted butternut squash would be magical!
- How about some crispy bacon (you’ll love my mess free cooking method!) crumbled up?
Cranberry Vinaigrette Recipe:
If you try this yummy, healthy salad dressing, be sure to come back and let me know what you think in the comments below!
Green Salad w/ Cranberry Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Cranberry Vinaigrette:
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1/4 cup fresh or thawed frozen cranberries (or strawberries for the summer)
- 3 tablespoons vinegar I use white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- 1/2 teaspoon sea salt
- 1/2 teaspoon pepper
- 1 clove garlic or about a teaspoon or less of minced
- 1 tablespoon honey May use stevia drops instead. Leave out if using strawberries which are already sweet
Green Salad:
- 1 bag mixed greens I like to add in some arugula!
- 1/4 cup toasted almond slices
- 1 small apple like a Honeycrisp, small 1" dice (dried cranberries would be good too, or strawberries in the summer!)
- Cashew Creamy Cheese link above in post, or goat cheese if you can have it
- Cranberry Vinaigrette to taste
Instructions
- Prepare the dressing by blending all ingredients with an immersion blenderor blender until smooth.
- Place salad ingredients in a large bowl, minus the cheese.
- Toss with desired amount of dressing.
- Dollop each plate with individual dollops of creamy cashew cheese
Notes
Nutrition
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This looks divine! I’ll be including a link to this in my salads round up over at Keeper of the Home in June! Yum!
Thanks Kelly, I am excited to see the round up…I love salads and I am always looking for new ideas!
Oh, I love cranberries! Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂
Hope your week is great!
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Thank you for your submission on Nourishing Treasures’ Make Your Own! Monday link-up.
Check back tomorrow when the new link-up is running to see if you were one of the featured posts! 🙂
Thanks for sharing your post at Wildcrafting Wednesday. Your salad sounds amazing. I’m especially intrigued by the cashew cheese. Looking forward to trying your salad and cranberry dressing. Yum.
Chris
Tessa, this looks like my kind of salad! I’d love to whip this up! YUM!
Thanks for linking up at our Gluten Free Fridays party! I have tweeted and pinned your entry to our Gluten Free Fridays board on Pinterest! 🙂
Be sure to check out the winning entry this week for our Better Batter Giveaway! The winner will be announced Thursday evening!
See you there!
Cindy from vegetarianmamma.com
Recipe saved to make in the future. It looks wonderful!
Ooh. I’ve been looking for ways to use up my fresh cranberries. Will have to try this. Thanks!
and this one too-looks so delicious!
Oooh, this looks wonderful. A cranberry vinaigrette? Ingenious! Thanks for sharing it at Raw Foods Thursdays! I’m off to find out what Cashew Creamy Cheese is. Sounds like something I’d love. 🙂
It’s funny just today I had a big salad but kind of had to force myself into it because I’m craving warm comforting foods over raw greens – but I find a really yummy dressing helps 🙂 Can’t wait to try this recipe! Love honey crisp apples!
-Dana
Well hello and happy 2013!
Your salad looks so good 😉
I would also like to invite you to my Potluck Party – it’s featuring The Best of 2012 Recipes this week 😉 Hope you can make it!
http://www.lifeologia.com/potluck-party-best-recipes-of-2012/
xo
Ella
ps. there will be voting set in place for this one 😉
I find myself craving salad everyday 🙂 This sounds yummy! I would love to have you share your posts on The HomeAcre Hop!
http://www.theselfsufficienthomeacre.com/2013/01/the-homeacre-hop-2.html
Thanks for linking my recipe, I’m so happy you liked it! Can’t wait to make your salad, I’m printing it right now 🙂
That dressing sounds so good! I’m always on the look out for healthier (but still tasty) recipes to make at home, and can’t wait to try this one!