Do you love sweet and savory, fruit and greens salads as much as I do? I hope so, because today I have a fun raspberry salad full of mixed greens, oranges, fried almonds, and goat cheese! This is a salad which you can bring to cookout, make for the holidays, and pull out midwinter when the citrus is awesome and you need a taste of summer.
Hey, how’s it going?
I’m sitting here in air conditioning as the sun keeps powering on and melting me day after day! Ugh. Luckily I have all sorts of awesome no-cook, quick-cook, and grilling recipes to keep us from starving. Anything involving the oven or any amount of time stirring food on the stove top takes a fair amount of pep talking and isn’t happening after noon.
So there. 🙂
On the no-cook side of things, right now we are eating TONS of salads! Like this raspberry salad. Which is soooo good and soooo easy that I’m shocked it took me months to share it after I teased you with the salad in my Raspberry Balsamic Vinaigrette recipe.
Yep, I’m finally giving you the salad to go with the dressing. Better late than never I guess? I just kept getting distracted by shiny recipes and thought ‘oh I’ll do it next week’ and then more shiny recipes. But apparently there is nothing like a heat wave to convince me that salad for dinner is the way to go.
How to Make a Raspberry Salad with Mixed Greens
First up, you’re going to make the raspberry vinaigrette, since the salad and the vinaigrette were made for each other. It’s going to take you about 5 minutes and a blender. *whir whir* and you’re done!
Next, heat some oil in a small nonstick pan and get the almonds frying. This will take a few minutes, so keep an eye on it while you pull out all the salad ingredients. Once the almonds are a nice, golden brown, transfer them to a towel-lined plate and let them cool and drain. Oh, and sprinkle them with some kosher salt now!
Measure out the greens (and wash them if you need to), thinly slice some red onion, crumble the goat cheese, and rinse off the raspberries.
The only fussy bit of this recipe is making the orange supremes. It’s not difficult, but it does take a little time, and it helps to have a sharp paring knife.
Tip: What is a supreme? That’s when you cut out slices of an orange, leaving the membranes behind.
What you’re going to do is cut off the ends of the orange and then slice off all the peel and pith until all that’s left is the fruit. Then take your paring knife and cut down along each membrane, freeing the orange slices. Any type of orange will do. I like using a combo of different colors (navel, blood orange, cara cara, etc.), but there is plenty of other color in this salad so it will look great so matter what oranges you pick.
Once you have everything done, layer the ingredients in the salad bowl, with the greens on the bottom and reserving the goat cheese. Drizzle on some dressing, giving the salad a toss. Then add the goat cheese, drizzle some more dressing over the top, and serve.
Raspberry Salad Variations to Try
While the salad, as written, is amazing, you can switch it up depending on what ingredients you have and your particular tastes. I would keep the balance of sweet, spicy, creamy, crunchy, which still leaves plenty of room for creativity:
- try sliced sweet onions or green onions
- candied pecans instead of the almonds
- add more berries to the party! a mix of strawberries and blueberries would be great
- switch out the goat cheese for feta or blue cheese
- change out the greens: how about baby kale, all spinach, or butter lettuce?
And then, if you can’t get enough fruit in your dinner salad, I have a pile of them here on site! Here are a few of my favorites.
More Savory Fruit Salads
- Italian Orange, Radicchio, and Pecan Salad
- Creamy Broccoli Apple Salad with Pistachios, Cranberries, and Red Onion
- Peach and Blueberry Spinach Salad
- Winter Citrus Salad with Mixed Greens
- Pecan, Blue Cheese and Apple Salad
- Shaved Asparagus and Orange Salad
If you try my recipe for Raspberry Salad with Mixed Greens and Oranges, I would love to hear from you in the comments with your experience and rating! You can connect with me by subscribing to my emails (see the form in the sidebar or below the recipe card), liking my FACEBOOK page, or by following me on PINTEREST.
– Happy Eating, Annemarie
Raspberry Salad with Mixed Greens and Oranges
Ingredients
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 cup blanched silvered almonds
- kosher salt
- 2 medium oranges, such as navel, blood oranges, cara cara
- 6-8 cups mixed baby greens
- 1/2 small red onion, thinly sliced
- 1 cup fresh raspberries
- 4 oz goat cheese, crumbled
- 1/4-1/3 cup raspberry salad dressing
Instructions
- Heat the olive oil in a small non-stick pan until shimmery. Add the almonds and fry on medium-low heat, stirring as needed, until the almonds are golden brown. 3-4 minutes. Transfer to a towel lined plate and sprinkle with kosher salt.
- Slice the ends off of the each of the oranges, then slice off all the peel until only the orange flesh is left. Then take a paring knife and cut down along each of the membranes, freeing the orange slices.
- Fill a serving bowl with mixed greens. Top with onions, raspberries, almonds, and oranges.
- Drizzle 2 tablespoons of raspberry dressing over and toss to combine. Then top with goat cheese crumbles and drizzle 2-3 more tablespoons of dressing on the salad. Serve.
Notes
- Red Onion: To mellow the bite of the raw onion, soak the slices in cold water for 10-15 minutes.
- Raspberry Dressing: I use my raspberry balsamic vinaigrette in the salad. It only takes a few minutes to make and the flavor is so much better than bottled.
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