Delicious seasonal Apple Cranberry Salad, with pecans and bacon make this the perfect salad around Thanksgiving time. Perfect side dish, or maybe add leftover turkey to make this a meal unto itself.

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A bowl of salad with apples and red onions and cranberries with a spoon on the side

This delicious Apple Cranberry Salad is a perfect combination of sweet and savory and tasty textures. Yummy spring salad mixed with apple slices, crispy bacon and toasted pecans tossed with a sweet cranberry vinaigrette, these are fall flavors you'll never forget.

A bowl of salad with apples and red onions and cranberries with a spoon on the side close up — Apple Cranberry Salad

Next time try my Cranberry Apple Rice Pilaf, for another delicious fall side dish.

This makes the perfect Thanksgiving side salad, due to the seasonal ingredients of cranberries, apples and pecans.

For Christmas too. It's just that time of year and the best part? It can be ready in just a couple minutes and perfect for healthy eating.

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❤️ Why you'll love it
🧅 Ingredients
🥣 Instructions
🔄 Substitutions
🔄 Variations
🔌 Equipment
🧊 Storage
💡 Tips
🍽 More Thanksgiving Side Dishes
Apple Cranberry Salad
💬 Comments

❤️ Why you'll love it

This salad is perfect as a side for most anything. However, it does have some protein so could stand alone as a light lunch.

After you've indulged for a main meal and are ready for dessert, you should try my Old Fashioned Pecan Pie, my family go nuts over it! Or perhaps something a little smaller, seeing how you've indulged! These Hot Chocolate Brownie Bites are super cute and just a bite of sweetness.

You should also try my pasta salads: Late Summer Pasta Salad and Tuna Pasta Salad.

🧅 Ingredients

Spring Mix Lettuce
Crispy Bacon, chopped
Feta Cheese
Crunchy Apples, Sliced (honey crisp, or gala apple is my favorite)
Pecans, toasted
Red Onion, sliced
Dried Cranberries
Toasted Sliced Almonds
Salt and pepper
Your choice of Salad dressing

See recipe card at the bottom of this post for quantities.

🥣 Instructions

Step 1: Toast the pecans until fragrant.
Step 2: Slice the apple and red onion and chop the bacon.
Step 3: Toss together in a large salad bowl. Apply your favorite dressing or just plain olive oil. My favorite dressing to add to this salad is a Cranberry Vinaigrette, try some to please your taste buds.

two images, one with a skillet with pecans the other image is a chopping board with red onion and apple

Hint: don't apply the vinaigrette (salad dressing) until you are ready to serve. To allow this fall salad texture to last longer. Perhaps even serve it on the side, for guests to add at their pleasure.

🔄 Substitutions

Lettuce - instead of spring mix you could use romaine lettuce, or spinach maybe.
Blue Cheese - use blue cheese or even creamy goat cheese instead of feta cheese for some extra tanginess.
Vegetarian - leave out the bacon, add more feta and pecans.
Green Onions - If you prefer something a little less bold, swap out the red onion for a sprinkling of chopped green onions.

🔄 Variations

Spicy - add some sweet chili sauce to the vinaigrette for a little sweet heat.
Deluxe - add chicken breast or rotisserie chicken for a 'beefed up' version of this side salad.
Leftover friendly - whip this salad up and add some cubes of leftover turkey, from your Thanksgiving meal.
Apples - I used a sweet Honey Crisp apple for this apple cranberry salad, but if you prefer something a little more tart you could use a granny smith apple.

a wooden set of salad fork and spoon digging into a salad bowl

🔌 Equipment

This salad can be made in any large bowl and decanted into a small bowl per person. Or on a salad plate.

The use of salad utensils help with the mixing and with the serving of this salad. See some links in the recipe card below for my favorites.

🧊 Storage

This salad should be stored in an airtight container in the refrigerator. If there's a chance you'll have some left I would keep the dressing on the side. The salad will start to wilt after a short while if the dressing has been applied already.

💡 Tips

Expert Tip: An easy way to use up your leftover cranberry sauce is to make the cranberry vinaigrette that goes perfectly with this salad!

🍽 More Thanksgiving Side Dishes

For some dessert ideas you should check out my list of Thanksgiving Tart Recipes. They're stunning.

If you’ve tried this apple cranberry salad recipe or any other great recipe on my site, let me know in the comment section below, how it turned out, we love hearing from our readers!

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