Apple cranberry spinach salad filled with greens, crisp apples, dried cranberries, walnuts, feta cheese and a delicious honey dijon dressing. An easy salad recipe that’s full of flavor!
Table of Contents
Spinach Apple Salad
When I’m craving a healthy homemade salad, this spinach salad with cranberries always comes to mind. It’s so tasty and the honey dijon dressing really takes it over the top! I also love to make my winter salad, mandarin orange salad and pear salad.
If you’re looking for an easy and delicious salad recipe to make when entertaining, this apple cranberry spinach salad needs to be on your list! It’s so quick to whip up and you probably already have a lot of the ingredients on hand. The flavors in this spinach salad blend together so nicely and make the perfect sweet and savory mix.
I like to use baby spinach as the base of this salad and add in a spring mix if I have some on hand. Then it’s topped with sliced apples, dried cranberries, walnuts (pecans also taste great), feta cheese and a honey dijon dressing. If I’m feeling extra fancy, I’ll throw in some candied pecans, which are a real treat.
I constantly crave this recipe and often make it for dinner and lunch, too! I like to add some shredded chicken or leftover steak for extra protein. If you’re a fan of seafood, grilled salmon would taste delicious on this salad too!
What Goes into a Spinach Salad?
This recipe is super easy to throw together and can be customized based on what you have on hand. Don’t have walnuts? Use pecans or even almonds. No feta on hand? Try using goat cheese instead. You can even substitute pears and pomegranates for the apples and cranberries if you prefer.
- Spinach or spring mix
- Apple
- Cranberries
- Walnuts or pecans
- Feta cheese
- Honey dijon dressing (Extra virgin olive oil, honey, red wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, S&P) or dressing of choice
How Do you Make a Simple Spinach Salad?
Scroll down for the printable recipe.
- Whisk together the honey dijon dressing ingredients in a small bowl, then store in fridge until serving.
- When ready to serve, add spinach to large bowl and then top with remaining spinach salad ingredients.
- Stir the dressing, then drizzle on top of spinach salad. Toss until combined.
What is the Best Dressing to Use?
The homemade honey dijon dressing is what really takes this recipe over the top. I love to use this dressing on so many different salads, like my strawberry burrata salad and mandarin orange salad. It is so yummy and only takes a couple minutes to whip up.
All you need for this honey dijon dressing is olive oil, red wine vinegar, honey, dijon mustard, salt and pepper. To make things easier, you can toss the ingredients in a mason jar, shake it up and store it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to serve it. It will keep in the fridge for about a week. Before serving, just make sure to shake up the dressing before drizzling it over your salad.
Quick Tips
- To make a complete meal, add extra protein like chicken, steak or fish.
- I like to mix in some spring mix to give the salad more depth.
- Feeling extra fancy? Make your own candied pecans to give this salad a boost!
- If prepping ahead of time, add apples and honey dijon dressing right before serving.
- Feel free to make swaps based on what you have on hand, like pears instead of apples or pomegranates instead of cranberries.
- Store the dijon dressing in an airtight container or mason jar for up to 1 week in fridge.
Delicious Salad Recipes
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Apple Cranberry Spinach Salad
Ingredients
Honey Dijon Dressing:
- ¼ cup extra-virgin olive oil
- ¼ cup honey
- 3 Tablespoons red wine vinegar
- 1 Tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon pepper
Spinach Salad:
- 6 to 8 cups prewashed spinach or spring mix
- 1 large apple , cored and thinly sliced
- ½ cup dried cranberries
- ½ cup walnuts or pecans
- ¼ cup crumbled feta cheese
Instructions
- In a small bowl, whisk together the oil, honey, vinegar, mustard, salt and pepper. Store in the refrigerator until ready to serve and stir before serving. The dressing stays good up to one week.
- When ready to serve, place the spinach in a large bowl. Top with apple slices, cranberries, nuts and feta cheese. Drizzle with the dressing and toss until combined. Serve immediately.
Notes
Nutrition
Nutrition provided is an estimate. It will vary based on specific ingredients used.
Did you make this recipe? Don’t forget to give it a star rating below!
Will make this again! Received many compliments.
Glad you enjoyed the spinach salad :)
absolutely delicious!
So glad to hear! Thanks for your review Mary!
This spinach salad recipe is one the best I’ve had in a long time. I used a gala apple because it’s what I had (all the Granny Smith’s were just used for the apple pie). I omitted the nuts because of my son’s nut allergy & it wasn’t even missed.
My daughter doesn’t like fruit in her salad, but I saw her eat the apple slices. Very tasty and will be made again & again. Thank you!
I’m so glad you enjoyed it! Thank you for leaving a comment Misty. :)
Easy and delicious!
Not yet, but when I will next week, I’ll reply for sure.
It looks Amazing & easy to make.
That’s what attracted me about it.
Can you use whole berry cranbysauce if you don’t have cranberries
You could, but I prefer the dried cranberries!
This is such a fabulous salad! So yummy!
Love apples in my salads!
Looks so festive and fabulous! I will definitely have them on our table, love it!
This looks like such a tasty salad! I have spinach in the fridge and some pears that need to be eaten. This dish will be lunch this week! Thanks for the inspiration!
This is such a perfect salad! Love how simple it is!
I can’t wait to try your dressing! This salad looks amazing!
I’m allergic to apples so I made it with pear – it’s awesome!
I also modified the dressing – I served with (equal parts of) olive oil, balsamic vinegar, mustard and maple syrup – DE LI CIOUS :)))
Thanks for sharing your substitutions! I’ll have to try it with pears next time.:)
I’m craving this salad just looking at the photos, too! It looks so delicious and healthy! (I’d say the same thing even if the nuts were candied :)) I’ve never made a honey dijon dressing before, but I’m definitely going to have to give this salad a try!