Pomegranate Mandarin Salad with Avocado and Feta

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This Pomegranate Mandarin Salad with Avocado and Feta is a festive salad for any winter meal! Serve it as a holiday wreath, just for fun.
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The holidays always make me crave mandarin oranges.  While I love just eating them as a healthy snack, adding them to salads like this Pomegranate Mandarin Salad perks up my daily dose of leafy greens as well.

If you’re my age, you’ll probably remember that mandarins were only available for a short time every winter, and never until the beginning of December. They came individually wrapped in thin green tissue papers in small wooden (yup, wooden) boxes. To us kids, their arrival in the stores meant that Christmas couldn’t be far behind, and that in itself was cause for great excitement. At school, our Christmas gift from our teacher was always a mandarin orange and a candy cane. It was a big deal to see who could remove the peel from their orange in one piece.

Today, the boxes are smaller, they’re made of cardboard, but the oranges are just as sweet and delicious!

This gorgeous salad is bursting with Vitamin C-rich fruit, crunchy pecans and creamy avocado, and it’s topped with crumbled feta or goat cheese. Make it festive by serving it as a holiday wreath in a round serving dish, decked out with cheerful coloured fruits and nuts, tiny pomegranate jewels and sprinkled with a little feta “snow” on top. Or you can keep it dairy-free by omitting the feta, if you like.

Make this holiday wreath salad to add some fun to your winter meals! Arrange healthy crispy greens in a round shallow bowl or platter around a central dish that will hold the citrus vinaigrette. Then, top with mandarin orange segments, sliced avocado, pomegranate arils and finish with feta cheese and pecans. Make this pretty salad ahead of time, refrigerate, and drizzle with the slightly sweet citrus dressing just before serving.

3 Reasons to make this Pomegranate Mandarin Salad today

1. it tastes amazing
2. every bite is fresh, juicy and nutritious
3. it will brighten up any dull winter day!

5 from 3 votes

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Pomegranate Mandarin Salad with Avocado and Feta

Prep Time

20 mins

Total Time

20 mins

 

This Pomegranate Mandarin Salad with Avocado and Feta is a festive salad for any winter meal! It's bursting with fruit rich in Vitamin C, crunchy pecans and creamy avocado. Top it with crumbled feta or goat cheese.

Course: Salads

Servings: 4

Author: Flavour & Savour

Ingredients

• 1 head romaine lettuce or crisp mixed greens
• 1 long English cucumber, thinly sliced
• 1 avocado, peeled, pitted and sliced
• 2 mandarin oranges, peeled and sectioned
• 1/2 cup pomegranate arils
• 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 cup toasted pecans

Citrus Vinaigrette

• 1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
• 3 Tablespoons freshly squeezed lemon juice
• 2 Tablespoons white wine vinegar or Champagne vinegar
• 1 small shallot, finely minced
• 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
• 1 teaspoon honey
• 1/2 teaspoon each, sea salt and pepper

Instructions

1. To make a wreath-shaped salad, place a small bowl for the vinaigrette in the centre of a larger round shallow bowl or platter.
2. Arrange bite-sized pieces of romaine or other greens in the bowl around the small dish. Top with remaining ingredients, finishing with feta cheese and pecans.
3. Whisk vinaigrette ingredients together and pour into the small bowl in the center of the serving bowl.
4. Serve and drizzle vinaigrette over all just before serving.

If you love adding citrus fruit to salads, you may like these too!

Orange and Avocado Salad with Parmesan Crisps

Baby Bok Choy Salad with Ginger Orange Dressing

Shrimp Salad with Grapefruit and Mint