Kimberly’s Festive Salad is butter lettuce topped with almonds, mandarins, cranberries, feta and apples in a simple lemon/olive oil dressing.
If you’re looking for a new green salad to try, may I suggest Kimberly’s Festive Salad? This yummy salad, made with soft butter lettuce serves four and it is full of flavor!
The recipe popped up in a Facebook feed a while ago from Kimberly Schlapman, an incredible singer in a group I love called “Little Big Town”. Perhaps you are familiar with their music (they’re famous, and oh so good)!
Kimberly is also a published cookbook author (“Oh, Gussie! – Cooking and Visiting in Kimberly’s Southern Kitchen”) and hosted a cable cooking show (in addition to being a musician), so she’s multi-talented and a gorgeous, vivacious woman.
Her FB post only showed a list of the ingredients she used (no directions), but since it sounded really good, I jotted them down. I ended up making a couple very slight changes to the ingredients and then made the salad. It is delicious!
My husband and I really enjoy it with our meals now and I’m sure you will, too! It’s really easy to create this delicious and colorful green salad in just about 10-12 minutes. Here’s how to make Kimberly’s Festive Salad.
Scroll Down For A Printable Recipe Card At The Bottom Of The Page
Make The Salad Dressing
The salad gets a lot of its flavor from a simple olive oil, honey and lemon juice dressing, which can be made in only a minute or two! Combine extra virgin olive oil, fresh lemon juice, honey, salt, red pepper flakes and minced red onion (or shallot) in a small bowl.
Whisk or stir well until these ingredients have emulsified. When emulsified, it means the liquid, which in this case is lemon juice and olive oil (which normally don’t mix well) have been mixed enough to come together in a uniform mixture.
Set the dressing aside while you create the salad (you will need to whisk it again right before dressing the salad).
Prep Ingredients For Creating The Salad
I find it helpful to get the ingredients for topping the salad ready before “building” the salad. You will need crumbled feta cheese, slivered almonds, one Honeycrisp apple, dried cranberries and canned (drained) mandarin orange slices.
Tear apart a large head of chilled butter lettuce and place the leaves in a large serving bowl.
Top the butter lettuce with cranberries, mandarin oranges, slivered almonds and crumbled feta. NOTE: Reserve a very small amount of each of these topping ingredients to add to the top of the salad AFTER you have tossed it with the dressing.
See? Now the salad is starting to look more “festive”! The colors and textures are what give this salad it’s chewy, crunchy and colorful appeal!
TIP: Do not cut up the apple until right before you serve the salad, because that prevents the chopped apples from browning once they’re exposed to air.
If you’re making the salad ahead of time, cover it with plastic wrap (without the apples!) and refrigerate it until you’re ready to serve it later.
Last Steps Before Serving Kimberly’s Festive Salad
Right before you’re ready to serve this yummy salad, chop up the Honeycrisp apple (don’t peel it) into small bite-sized pieces. Add the apple pieces to the top of the salad.
You can see in the photo below the salad dressing is ready to go, along with the small amount of reserved feta cheese, cranberries, mandarins and almonds.
Quickly whisk the salad dressing one last time so it is emulsified, then drizzle it over the top of the salad. You may not need to use all of it, depending on your preference of how much dressing you would normally use.
Toss the salad gently to coat everything with the salad dressing, then add the reserved feta, mandarins, almonds, and cranberries to the top of the salad.
Serve, and enjoy Kimberly’s Festive Salad! The soft butter lettuce, fruit, nuts and tangy feta cheese are all complimented by the light salad dressing!
I really think you are going to love this salad as much as I do! It’s pretty to look at, as well, so that is always a win-win in my book!
I hope you have the opportunity to make Kimberly’s Festive Salad and feel confident you and those you love are going to love it! It looks good AND tastes great!
Thanks for stopping by, and I invite you to come back again soon for more family-friendly recipes. Take care, may God bless you, and have a wonderful day, friend.
Looking For More SALAD Recipes?
You can find ALL of my recipes in the Recipe Index, which is located at the top of the page. I have a wonderful variety of SALAD recipes you may want to check out, including:
- Apple Broccoli Quinoa Salad
- Bacon Lover’s Spinach Salad
- Broccoli Salad
- Chicken Club Pasta Salad
- Traditional Greek Salad
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Recipe adapted from: Kimberly Schlapman, (of the band “Little Big Town”, on her Facebook page- ingredients only)
↓↓ PRINTABLE RECIPE BELOW ↓↓
Kimberly's Festive Salad is butter lettuce topped with almonds, mandarins, cranberries, feta and apples in a simple lemon/olive oil dressing.
- 6 Tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 1 medium lemon (juice of)
- 2 Tablespoons honey
- 1 Tablespoon minced red onion or shallot
- 1 teaspoon kosher salt
- ½ teaspoon dried red pepper flakes
- 1 lg. head butter lettuce
- 15 oz. canned mandarin oranges drained well
- ¼ cup slivered, toasted almonds
- ¼ cup dried sweetened cranberries
- ⅓ cup crumbled feta cheese
- 1 large Honeycrisp apple (*do not peel) cored- diced in bite-sized pieces
Make Salad Dressing: Combine olive oil, lemon juice, honey, salt, red pepper flakes and red onion (or shallot) in a small bowl. Whisk well until the dressing has emulsified into a uniform mixture. Set dressing aside.
Place butter lettuce leaves (torn in smaller pieces) in a large serving bowl. Top with cranberries, mandarin oranges, slivered almonds and crumbled feta. NOTE: Reserve a very small amount of each of these topping ingredients to add to the salad AFTER you've tossed it with the dressing. TIP: Do not cut up the apple until right before you serve the salad, because that prevents the chopped apples from browning once they're exposed to air.
TIP: If you're making the salad ahead of time, cover it with plastic wrap (without the apples!). Refrigerate it until you're ready to serve it later, so all ingredients are well-chilled.
Right before serving, chop the apple (don't peel it) into small bite-sized pieces. Add apple pieces to the salad.
Whisk salad dressing well; drizzle it on the salad. Toss salad gently to cover all ingredients with salad dressing. Add reserved feta, mandarins, almonds, and cranberries to the top of the salad. Serve, and enjoy!
NOTE: Add apple piece just before serving to prevent browning! You can substitute Fuji or Gala apples, or another red CRISP apple if desired.
Here’s one more to pin on your Pinterest boards!