Orange Pomegranate Salad bursts with flavor, combining clementines, pomegranate arils, candied almonds, avocado, feta, and a delicious citrus vinaigrette.
Pair this with a hearty main dish like Shepherd’s Pie, Chicken Chili, or Spaghetti Bolognese.
Orange Pomegranate Salad
This salad is light, refreshing, and the perfect complement to heartier, heavier holiday side dishes. I love piling my plate with mashed potatoes, dinner rolls, and Thanksgiving dressing, but it’s always nice to have a lighter dish to balance all that richness.
Orange Pomegranate Salad is just that—a vibrant side dish packed with fresh, delicious ingredients and bursts of beautiful, ripe, in-season fruit.
Let’s talk candied almonds
We love quick stovetop candied almonds on this Orange Pomegranate Salad, but if you’d rather, honey roasted almonds are also amazing. If I’m not candying the almonds, I use a bag of store-bought honey roasted almonds.
Here’s how to make your own candied almonds:
Place 1 cup sliced almonds and 1/4 cup + 2 tablespoons white granulated sugar in a large skillet over medium heat. Cook and stir constantly. The sugar will begin to melt, become a sticky liquid, and then stick to the almonds. This takes about 3-4 minutes; watch carefully and stir constantly to avoid burning the nuts. As soon as the sugar starts turning liquid-y, remove the skillet from the heat and continue to stir until almonds are well coated. Spread the candied almonds onto a sheet of parchment paper and let cool. Once hardened, break apart and add to this Orange Pomegranate Salad.
Quick Tip
This is more almonds than you’ll need for the salad, but sugaring the almonds works best with this volume. Store leftover almonds in an airtight container in the freezer for up to 2 months or in the pantry for 2-3 weeks. Use leftover almonds as a snack, or as a topping for yogurt bowls, acai bowls, or another salad recipe.
Orange Pomegranate Salad Shortcuts
- Skip candying the almonds and use store-bought honey roasted almonds.
- Use canned mandarin oranges (thoroughly drained) to save time peeling and segmenting clementines. Fresh clementines can be hard to find at certain times of the year.
- Grab pre-seeded pomegranate arils
Quick Tip
Already seeded pomegranate arils are typically sold in small plastic cups in the produce section of the grocery store. They can sometimes be tricky to find and are usually only sold in the States from October to February.
Make Ahead Tips
If you’d like to make this Orange Pomegranate Salad ahead for Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner, follow the tips below:
- Prep the fruit. Peel and segment the clementines. Store in an airtight container in the fridge. Cut and deseed the pomegranate; store pomegranate seeds in a separate airtight container (or bag) in the fridge.
- Prep the dressing. Give it a quick whiz in the blender and then store it all together in a mason jar until ready to dress the salad. (Give it a quick shake in the jar before dressing the salad.)
- Add almonds and feta cheese to small individual containers/bags. Divide out the almonds and cheese and add these to individual bags or containers so they’re ready to grab on the go.
- Lettuce and avocado. These last two ingredients are tricky to prepare in advance. For the lettuce, I usually buy a large plastic container of mixed greens. I just leave it in the fridge and take out when ready to prep the salad. The avocado can’t be prepared too far in advance as it will brown. I recommend chopping/dicing the avocado right before eating this Orange Pomegranate Salad. If you do need to chop it up ahead of time, squeeze some lemon juice on the avocado to keep it from browning.
Quick Tip
Arils are the fleshy covering of the seeds found inside a pomegranate. They’re sparkly, brilliant and delicious! The translucent, ruby-colored flesh coats a tiny, white or pink seed, but the entire aril can be eaten. Because there’s an actual seed there (similar to a grape seed) they do crunch when you chew them. You can also slurp them down, crunching them to get the juice out, but swallowing without actually chewing.
Orange Pomegranate Salad Leftovers
Once dressed, this Orange Pomegranate Salad doesn’t store very well. The dressing makes the lettuce wilt and the avocado begins to brown and change texture.
I’d recommend only dressing what you will enjoy the same day. See tips in the section above for storing the dressing and salad components separately. Try to only cut avocados that will be consumed immediately after making.
More delicious holiday recipes
- Autumn Crunch Pasta Salad with a poppyseed vinaigrette
- Crockpot Mashed Potatoes creamy and tender
- Roasted Sweet Potato Salad with a balsamic dressing
- Cornbread Dressing with fresh herbs
- No Bake Pumpkin Cheesecake with a graham cracker crust
Orange Pomegranate Salad
Equipment
- Blender or food processor
Ingredients
- 8 cups mixed greens 5 ounces, spinach and lettuces
- 2 cups clementine oranges or mandarin oranges, 4 to 6 clementines
- 3/4 cup pomegranate arils
- 1 large avocado chopped or thinly sliced, or 2 small avocados
- 1 lemon optional, to keep the avocado from browning too quickly
- 1/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1/2 cup sliced honey-roasted almonds see note 1
Dressing
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1/4 cup olive oil
- 1/2 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
- 1 large orange
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon pepper
- 1 teaspoon poppy seeds optional
Instructions
- In a blender or food processor, combine all the dressing ingredients except the poppy seeds. Add 1 teaspoon orange zest and 4 tablespoons orange juice. Pulse to blend, then taste and adjust seasonings to preference. Stir in optional poppy seeds. (The dressing is fairly thin, but it adheres to the lettuce/ingredients nicely!) Transfer dressing to a mason jar and store in the fridge until ready to use. Shake before dressing the salad.
- Fill a large bowl or salad platter with the mixed greens. Top with peeled and segmented clementines. Add seeded pomegranate arils (see note 2), and chopped or thinly sliced avocado. (If desired, squeeze some fresh lemon juice on the avocado to keep it from browning too quickly.)
- Once dressed, this salad does not sit or store well. If you’d like to prepare in advance, read the tips in the blog post. Right before enjoying the salad, toss it with the dressing, almonds, and feta cheese. You may not use all the dressing (depending on how dressed you like your salads).
Recipe Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition information is automatically calculated, so should only be used as an approximation.
I made this for Christmas Eve dinner along with roasted veggies and ham. It was delicious! I loved everything about it!
Just made my grocery list to get everything I need for this gorgeous salad! Thanks for the inspiring recipe! The photos are stunning!
You are so sweet, thank you so much!! I hope you LOVE it!!
Planning on making this for a dinner party for 10 this weekend…any help with how many this was designed to serve as a salad course?
Salad officially added to the Christmas menu … thanks for being amazing and creating a salad perfect for Christmas!
I just learned how to easily get the seeds out of a pomegranate so have starting using it like crazy in everything!! This salad looks so good – I am definitely going to try it! Thanks for sharing it!
Such a vibrant salad… I really like it, and since I’m vegetarian, I’ll be having few other salads on a Christmas table instead of ham… 😉
This salad is so gorgeous! I love all the colors in there. You are so right – toasted almonds really take salad to the next level.
LOVE this salad recipe. Ive been so digging Pom. seeds in pretty much everything at the moment.