This recipe for orange almond salad has been around for years and it’s still a great one. I just took a big bowl of it to a party and it was a hit. The traditional recipe (and this one) has candied almonds, but as with many of the recipes on the site, you are welcome to leave out the sugar and sprinkle on the almonds as-is.
I’ve kept the oil low (1 tablespoon) but you could leave this out completely, as well. Just keep in mind that omitting the oil makes the dressing a little more tart.
I added dried (unsweetened) cranberries for color or you could use raisins. Purchase dried cranberries without palm oil and sugar if you can find them. Some health markets sell them sweetened with apple juice.
Pair this salad with a tasty main dish:
- Moroccan Chickpea Vegetable Tagine
- Cauliflower Pasta Alfredo
- Tempeh Reuben Sandwich
- Sweet Potato Veggie Lasagna
If you’d like to learn about making your own oil-free salad dressings, see my “Salad Dressing Formula” freebie.
I’d love to hear your feedback in the comments below for this Orange Almond Salad recipe! If you have a photo, post it on my Instagram page, tag me using the hashtag #plantbasedcooking in your caption, and I won’t miss it!
Orange Almond Salad
Ingredients
- 1 head Romaine lettuce chopped or torn into small pieces
- 1 can mandarin oranges drained
- 1/2 cup slivered almonds or sliced
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1 Tbl sugar (optional)
- 1/3 cup parsley roughly chopped
- 1/2 cup green onion diced
Dressing
- 1/4 cup apple cider vinegar (red wine or rice vinegar works, too)
- 2 Tbl maple syrup
- 1 Tbl olive oil (optional)
- 1 clove garlic finely minced
- sea salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- If you'd like to "candy" the almonds, melt sugar in the bottom of a non-stick pan. Add almonds and stir until lightly browned and covered with syrup. Pour on to a plate to cool.
- Put lettuce, oranged, cranberries, almonds, green onions, and parsley into a salad bowl.
- Whisk dressing ingredients and pour over salad. Toss to coat.
You list the sodium as 937.9mg per serving, that seems extraordinarily high for the ingredients listed. Could you explain?
You are so right. I’ve fixed it now and it’s 18.4 mg per serving.The nutritional label generator I use misinterpreted “salt & pepper.” Thanks for catching that!
Is the dressing the vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper mixed or am I missing something for dressing? Recipe seems backwards if this is the case because it says make dressing, pour over and toss, but then says whisk vinegar, sugar, salt and pepper.
Oops, that recipe needed updating, thanks for bringing it to my attention! I’ve upped the servings to 4, added green onions (which I missed), and fixed the problem you addressed. It should be more clear as to what the dressing ingredients are. Hope you enjoy 🙂