Fruit, Nut, and Feta Salad
This Fruit, Nut, and Feta salad offers up a delightful mix of flavours and textures: juicy oranges and sweet grapes mingle with dried peaches, toasted pecans, and creamy feta over a bed of mixed greens. Topped with a bright orange vinaigrette, you'll love this salad as a main or side. This Fruit, Nut, and Feta Salad is easily made plant-based by using non-dairy feta cheese.
Servings side salads
Calories 504 kcal
Ingredients
Salad
- 6 cups mixed salad greens
- 1/2 cup pecans
- 1-2 oranges, sliced into rings, rind removed
- 1 cup grapes, sliced into halves
- 2 dried peaches or apricots, cut into strips
- 3.5 ounces Macedonian feta cheese, or plant-based feta [100 grams]
- 2 tablespoons red onion, diced
Orange Vinaigrette
- 3 tablespoons orange juice
- 1 teaspoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoon liquid sweetener, such as maple syrup, honey, agave
- 1/2 teaspoon sumac [This is a reddish spice that has a citrusy note. If it's unavailable, omit.]
- 9 tablespoons sunflower oil [Or substitute with another neutral salad oil.]
- pinch salt
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
Toast the Pecans
- Put the pecans on a baking sheet and bake for about 8 minutes, until browned. Set aside.
Make the Vinaigrette
- While the pecans are toasting, make the vinaigrette. Put everything but the oil in a small mixing bowl and whisk until combined. Pour the oil in slowly and whisk until well combined.
Prepare the Salad
- You could serve this on a platter or in a bowl. When I make it on a platter, I place the mixed greens down first, then place the oranges next, followed by the grapes, onion, pecans, and dried peaches. I put the feta on last.
Notes
Choosing a sweetener
Maple syrup and agave are plant-based. Honey is not plant-based. For more information, see Sugar, sugar, honey, honey: A guide to sweeteners for plant-based diets.Substitutions
You could use different types of citrus instead of orange. For example, mandarins, tangerines, tangelos, even grapefruit would be tasty. You could swap out the pecans for walnuts. You could use dried apricots instead of dried peaches, or another type of dried fruit.Nutritional information
Nutritional information is an estimate only and based on feta made using dairy.Nutrition
Calories: 504kcal | Carbohydrates: 21g | Protein: 6g | Fat: 46g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 4g | Monounsaturated Fat: 33g | Cholesterol: 22mg | Sodium: 300mg | Potassium: 351mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 14g | Vitamin A: 930IU | Vitamin C: 40mg | Calcium: 165mg | Iron: 1mg