Apple Walnut Cranberry Salad

This Apple Cranberry Walnut Salad includes a Mixed Green Spinach Salad with Green Apples, Dried Cranberries, Walnuts, and Gorgonzola Cheese. This simple salad explodes with flavor.

This healthy green salad incorporates all the deliciousness of the cheese, cranberries, and walnuts, but avoids the heavier ingredients like some other cranberry salads.

This holiday salad is the perfect fall salad for special occasions, or for family dinners, Thanksgiving dinner, Christmas dinner, Valentine’s Day, or any other family dinner where you want a light and refreshing crisp Green Salad. It is truly one of my favorite Salad Recipes.

The cranberries in this Apple Walnut salad are very different from my other Cranberry Salad, Cranberry Fluff. That Cranberry Salad is sweet, almost like a dessert.

However, this Apple, Walnut Cranberry Salad is savory with a slightly sweet and tart combination and nutty and salty flavors.

Jump to:

• Why You’ll Love This Salad
• What You’ll Need To Make This Recipe
• Equipment
• Ingredient Notes
• How To Make Apple Walnut Cranberry Salad
• Recipe Tips
• Variations
• What To Serve With Apple Walnut Cranberry Salad
• FAQs
• Recipe
• ⭐ Reviews

To dress this salad, I made my Apple Cider Vinaigrette, which is one of the mild dressings. I rarely buy bottles of salad dressing anymore because it is so easy to make my own, especially vinaigrette. This one starts with olive oil and adds apple cider vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic powder, dried oregano, black pepper, and basil. Easy!

Suffice it to say, your salad bowl will be filled with flavor when you make this salad. It combines the sweetness of the green apples and cranberries with the saltiness of the gorgonzola while the walnuts add a bit of crunch. Yum!

Why You’ll Love This Salad

• Flavors of Fall – With green apples, dried cranberries, walnuts, and fresh mixed greens, this great salad feels like fall.
• Vinaigrette – I like the apple cider vinaigrette with this recipe. However, a balsamic vinaigrette would work well also. The dressing ingredients are easy to find and use staple ingredients that you can easily find at your grocery store.
• Fresh Ingredients – With ingredients like fresh, crisp lettuce, green apples, and more, you can feel good about serving this delicious salad to your family and guests.
• Easy To Make – Literally, throw all the ingredients in a bowl and toss. It truly is one of the easy salads that you will ever make.

What You’ll Need To Make This Recipe

Equipment

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• Large Salad Bowl
• Tongs

Ingredient Notes

Below I discuss the ingredients and possible substitutions in case you don’t have a specific ingredient on hand. However, if you are looking for the specific measurements of each ingredient, be sure to scroll down to the bottom of this article, just above the comments, for the printable recipe card, which includes all the ingredients and the specific amounts of each one.

Salad Ingredients

• Mixed salad greens – with spinach leaves, washed
• Green apples – Green apples, like the granny smith apple variety, work great in this recipe. However, if you prefer sweet apples, you could use red apples, like delicious apples. I sliced the apples. However, if you prefer, you could chop apples instead.
• Dried Cranberries
• Gorgonzola Cheese – I like to use Gorgonzola or bleu cheese, or if you prefer, blue cheese. However, feta cheese or goat cheese would also be good options.
• Walnut Pieces
• Red Onion (Optional)

Apple Cider Vinaigrette Ingredients

• Olive oil
• Apple cider vinegar – I like the apple cider vinegar for this salad. However, if you prefer a balsamic vinaigrette, use balsamic vinegar instead.
• Dijon mustard
• Garlic powder
• Dried oregano
• Dried basil
• Freshly ground black pepper
• Sugar (Optional)

How To Make Apple Walnut Cranberry Salad

Make The Homemade Vinaigrette

• In a small bowl, whisk together all the vinaigrette ingredients, including:
  • Salt and Pepper
  • Olive Oil
  • Apple Cider Vinegar
  • Garlic Powder, Dried oregano, Dried Basil
  • Dijon Mustard
• Stir Everything together

Make The Salad

In a large bowl, toss the salad greens, sliced apples, dried cranberries, gorgonzola, and walnuts.

Drizzle vinaigrette over the salad and toss. Serve immediately.

Serve!

Recipe Tips

• Fresh Ingredients. Use the freshest ingredients you can find in this recipe. Freshness is the key to success with salads.
• Toss Well. Toss the ingredients well before serving so guests can taste all the ingredients in the salad.

Variations

• Lettuce – Use green leaf lettuce, Romain lettuce, or your favorite mixed greens.
• Apples – Change the type of apples that you use. Try red delicious, golden delicious, or any other apple you like. Another option would be to use pears instead of apples.
• Cheese – While I like gorgonzola cheese, feel free to change it with feta, goat cheese, or queso fresco.
• Vinaigrette – Instead of an apple cider vinaigrette, you can create a balsamic vinaigrette, or change it completely and use your favorite creamy salad dressing, like ranch dressing.

What To Serve With Apple Walnut Cranberry Salad

Below are some of my favorite recipes to serve with this salad.

• Instant Pot Butternut Squash Soup
• Oven Roasted Chicken
• Baked Acorn Squash Slices
• Scalloped Potatoes
• Hot Cross Buns
• Old Fashioned Custard Pie

FAQs

How Do I Store Leftover Apple Walnut Cranberry Salad?

• Store the salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to 3 days.

Can I Freeze Salad

• I do NOT recommend freezing a green leaf salad, like this apple walnut salad.

This salad is easy yet impressive…my favorite combination.  Go ahead and make this salad.  Impress your friends.  Just don’t tell them how easy it is to make. Don’t worry. I won’t tell!