The whole family will love this flavorful pomegranate salad! Made with crisp apple slices, crunchy & sweet pomegranate seeds, and lots of greens paired with a homemade balsamic dressing. It’s the perfect salad to serve as a Thanksgiving side salad or to compliment your favorite fall meal!
If you’ve never sprinkled sweet pomegranate seeds over a salad, then you are in for a treat! This is one of my favorite salads to make for fall and winter, and it’s always a crowd-pleaser.
This dish has a little bit of everything in it – lots of texture, sweet fruit taste, and leafy greens. You will fall in love with the flavors and find that it compliments almost any meal!
Ingredients You’ll Need
Below you’ll find the full list of ingredients needed to make this salad happen!
- Greens: For the base of the salad I love using mixed greens, arugula, or kale!
- Apples: my favorite apples for salad are honey crisp, pink lady, or fuji!
- Pomegranate seeds: these sweet seeds add the perfect pop of flavor to the salad.
- Nuts: for the crunchy texture you can use chopped walnuts, pecans, almonds, or hazelnuts.
- Oil: for the salad dressing! I recommend using quality olive oil.
- Balsamic vinegar: a quality balsamic vinegar to flavor the salad dressing.
- Honey: to sweeten the salad dressing! You can also use maple syrup or coconut sugar.
- Garlic powder: this will add flavor to the salad dressing!
- Cheese: to add an extra level of flavor you can sprinkle feta or gorgonzola cheese over top!
Extra Tips for Success
- Make dairy-free: This salad is delicious with feta or gorgonzola, but if you need it to be dairy-free you can leave the cheese out altogether. It’s just as delicious!
- Make this salad ahead: If this salad needs to be prepped ahead of time I recommend storing all the prepped ingredients in separate ziplock bags, then assembling the salad as needed close to the time of serving.
- Add protein: you can pair this salad with grilled chicken as a protein or for a plant-based option, try lentils or chickpeas.
- More toppings to add: some extra toppings you can add would be dried cranberries or cherries, roasted butternut squash, cooked wild rice for heartiness, or sliced pears!
- A tip if using kale: I usually blend the base of this salad with kale and arugula. But if you dislike the texture of kale my best tip would be to chop it really small. It blends right in with the arugula, and no one ever notices!
What to Pair it With
This salad goes perfectly with just about any meal! But some of my favorite meals to serve it with are alongside this lemon rosemary chicken and potatoes, air fryer turkey breast, or this autumn chicken and butternut squash skillet.
Other Delicious Salad Recipes to Enjoy
- Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
- Tuscan-Style Panzanella Salad
- Autumn Kale & Roasted Butternut Squash Salad
- Pear and Gorgonzola Salad
Apple Pomegranate Salad
Ingredients
Salad:
- 1 cup pomegranate seeds
- 1 honey crisp apple sliced thin
- 1/4 cup chopped pecans or walnuts
- salad greens our favorites are chopped kale, arugula, or mixed greens
- 2 tbsp feta cheese or gorgonzola works too!
Dressing:
- 1/3 cup olive oil
- 1/4 cup balsamic vinegar
- 2 tbsp honey or equal parts maple syrup
- 1/4 teaspoon garlic powder
- 1/4 tsp (each) black pepper & salt
Instructions
- Assemble the salad: in a large salad bowl, add the greens, pomegranate seeds, apple slices, nuts, and feta.
- Mix the salad dressing: in a glass jar, add all of the salad dressing ingredients. Cover it with a lid and shake it until combined, or use a spoon/fork to whisk the ingredients together.
- Serve: drizzle the dressing over top of the salad and serve!
Notes
- Apples: You can use almost any apple for this salad – I recommend pink lady, honey crisp, or fuji apples.
- Greens: Use your favorite greens for this salad such as kale, arugula, spinach, or mixed greens.
- Make dairy-free: If needed you can eliminate the cheese all together or swap for goat cheese.
- Make this salad ahead: If this salad needs to be prepped ahead of time I recommend storing all the prepped ingredients in separate ziplock bags, then assemble the salad as needed close to the time of serving.
Please take note the salad itself was good but add dressing sparingly at first, deciding on taste. The recipe did not say how much greens and the dressing drowned the salad.
Excited to make this.
I made this salad for a family Christmas gathering and it was a huge hit. I omitted the nuts bc I thought the crunch from pomegranates would be perfect. Dressing recipe is a keeper!
Thank you so much, Lisalen! So happy to hear your guests enjoyed it too. We serve this for Christmas every year. 🙂 Thrilled you love the dressing too, I use it all the time!
Don’t print the last 2 pages. It only wastes paper and printer Ink.
Could you use lactose free cheddar cheese or lactose free marble cheese.
I’ve not tried any lactose free cheeses, but you can certainly pair them with the salad if you like them!
Looks amazing! I love apples and am always looking for new ways to enjoy them. Fantastic recipe!
Thanks so much Jack! So glad you enjoyed this recipe 🙂
This was yummy…even my 8-year-old liked it! Thanks 🙂
I was amazed at how good this salad was. I will definitely make it again next Thanksgiving!
We had this salad for Thanksgiving as well. I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you, Heather!
I’ve made this several times. It’s a go-to recipe for me. Everyone loves it.
Thank you, Judy! So awesome to hear!
Could I make this salad in advance? Planning on having people over for dinner and would like to make this salad in the morning .. what do you recommend ? Adding the chopped apples last ? Will the other ingredients get soagy
Thanks 🙂
Yes! I’ve actually made this salad ahead of time quite a few times. I like to just put everything in separate bags or containers. Greens, pomegranate seeds, apples, feta, and pecans should all be in separate bags so they don’t get soggy all together. Hope this helps – enjoy the salad 🙂
PEOPLE!! You have GOT to try this salad if you haven’t already! It is SO delicious! Made it the day after Thanksgiving for a lighter supper to give our bodies a break from the ton of food & desserts consumed the day before. Perfect with some hearty multi grain rolls. I added some warmed up rotiseri chicken I had from a few nights before . . .delish! Also used blue cheese instead of feta, candied pecans instead of plain (hubby has a sweet tooth) and 1/4 of a granny smith apple & 1/4 of a honey crisp per salad. All those sweet & tart flavors make your taste buds sparkle! So, so yummy. Do not skip that dressing either . . .it is SO worth making it, only takes 2 seconds . . .measure all the ingredients into jar & shake . . .that’s it! . . .just the perfect finish for this salad!
So glad you liked it! It’s a fun salad to mix up the toppings with. Candied pecans sound amazing!
Love the sweet and tart together with the feta cheese topping it off! Great salad for the hibernation season ?