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Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad screams FALL! Cranberries, Spinach, Walnuts And BACON! All drizzled with the most perfect Honey Dijon Dressing!
This salad is absolutely amazing. Not only is it perfect for Thanksgiving, but for any time of the year! We could NOT STOP EATING THIS ONE! With a house constantly full of people — aka the Entice Films crew — the bonus is getting everyone to try my recipes before unleashing them to the world. Well, to over 5 million monthly visitors of you!
This salad is all of your side salad dreams come true! And I have so many salads on here — most of them main meal style salads because simple salads do nothing to my stomach and hunger pains. Except for this one. This one is CRAZY good, and went so brilliantly with this Crispy Slow Cooker Turkey!
This salad starts off with one of my favourite salad dressings. A honey mustard (or Honey Dijon, to be more specific), like this one I used in this Honey Mustard Chicken Avocado & Bacon Salad. Cutting a few elements out from that dressing to accomodate it for this one, I was NOT disappointed. THREE TIMES over not disappointed.
The prefect ratio of honey, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and olive oil.
HOW TO MAKE IT?
- This salad is so easy is doesn’t need instructions. But I’ll add them in anyway.
- Make sure your ingredients are FRESH! There’s nothing worse than soggy spinach. You can also use a spinach salad mix OR romaine lettuce OR even raw Kale if you’re into it! I buy already washed leaves to make my life easier.
- Put your bacon on to cook first while you prep the rest of your ingredients.
- You can really add anything you want to this. I used walnuts that my pro Entice Films baker threw into a frying pan with a dash of ground cumin. Yeah, you heard. It was AMAZEBALLS. You don’t have to do this, of course, it’s completely up to you. You could also use pecans, almonds or cashews instead.
- Can I just express here how much I LOVE cranberries! They add just the right punch of sweetness on your taste buds. If you don’t like them, sub them with chopped dried dates, apricots or figs!
- Also, let’s talk Feta cheese. PLEASE for the love of all that is awesome, try to find a fresh Feta instead of a packaged one. The fresh Feta from the deli is super creamy and doesn’t beat the hardened Feta you find in plastic packaging. I use Danish Feta, but any you find that’s nice and creamy is the BEST ONE for this salad.
- Onion rings? YES PLEASE! If you don’t like the punch of red onion flavour, you can soak them in water for a good 10 minutes. This turns the pungent onion flavour into a more mild one. Or sub with a couple tablespoons of sliced green scallions.
- Apples: which kind? I used green Granny Smith for my bitter-tasting-apples loving husband, and red delicious apples for me. You could also use Gala, Fuji or Pink Lady. We found half of each is enough.
- I don’t add any salt in the dressing purely because the bacon and feta have enough salt to balance this salad out nicely. You can add salt and pepper though. It’s up to you!
Let me know what you think in the comments below!
Don’t forget to check out the other salads:
Honey Mustard Chicken, Avocado + Bacon Salad
Avocado Greek Salad & Greek Salad Dressing
Balsamic Chickpea Avocado Feta Salad
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Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad
Ingredients
Salad:
- 4-6 cups baby spinach or mixed salad leaves including spinach
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
- 1/2 cup crushed walnuts
- 1/3 cup Danish feta cheese
- 1/2 red apple sweet, sliced
- 1/2 granny smith apple sliced
- 1/4 cup red onion sliced
- 4 slices bacon cooked and sliced or chopped
Dressing:
- 4 tablespoons olive oil
- 3 tablespoons honey
- 1 tablespoon apple cider vinegar
- 3-4 teaspoons Dijon mustard
Instructions
- Add all of the SALAD ingredients into a large salad bowl.
- Combine all of the DRESSING ingredients in a smaller bowl and mix well. Pour the dressing over the salad.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
The flavours are so brilliantly paired! This is hands down my favourite dinner party recipe and it always delivers! I do serve the nuts seperately as my son has a severe nut allergy but for the rest of us it is essential in the salad!
This is so delicious! I’ve added this to my fall lunch salad rotation (minus the onions) for the past few years and it never disappoints. I usually eat salads without dressings, but the balance of salt and sweet in this one is perfect.