A salad is one of those anytime-of-year, anytime-of-day meals. You can have one for breakfast (yes, seriously!), a quick lunch, or a healthy dinner. Classic salads can be a main course or a veggie-forward side dish. Similarly, citrus is also an anytime-of-year, anytime-of-day ingredient. So it makes sense that you can put those two concepts together to make some of the best salads out there.
There are quite a few salad recipes with citrus that really let it shine! Not convinced that a fruit belongs on a savory salad? Just think about it this way: a lot of salad dressing recipes call for something acidic like lemon juice to brighten up the flavor. That same concept can apply to adding citrus right to the main ingredient list. It adds a pop of freshness to earthier types of lettuce, like arugula and spinach.
The great thing about adding citrus to salads is that there’s really only one technique you need to learn: how to segment a citrus fruit. The rest of it is just throwing everything in a bowl and tossing it together. And if that’s not quite in your wheelhouse, go ahead and use canned mandarin oranges and skip the process entirely. Either way, you’ll thank yourself for adding a few of these light and fresh citrus salads to your menu lineup. There are even a few sweet ones to try, too, since you’re in the citrus spirit.
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Get not one but two pops of fresh citrus in this spring salad. Orange segments are combined with berries, pecans, goat cheese, and spinach and then tossed in a tangy lemon poppyseed dressing.
Get the Strawberry Spinach Salad recipe.
Citrus Salad with Feta
There’s so much flavor and texture in each bite of this crave-worthy salad. It has little gem lettuce, radicchio, blood orange segments, briny feta, sweet dates and roasted pistachios. If that weren’t enough, it’s all coated in a tahini-maple dressing.
Get Ree’s Citrus Salad with Feta recipe.
Chile-Lime Steak Salad
You don’t need lime wedges to let that telltale zing pop in your mouth. Combine the juice with a spicy Thai chile pepper for a dressing that’s out of this world. The savory steak on top will thank you.
Get Ree’s Chile-Lime Steak Salad recipe.
Sesame Chicken Salad
Give your salad a little Asian flair! Canned mandarin oranges make it so easy to throw together on any weeknight. They add just the right sweet contrast to the savory sesame, soy, and ginger mixed throughout.
Get Ree’s Sesame Chicken Salad recipe.
Kale Citrus Salad
Grab some easy-to-peel clementines and make this hearty and healthy salad. It also features slices of jalapeño for the perfect contrast of sweet and spicy. There’s also orange juice mixed into the dressing for extra brightness.
Get Ree’s Kale Citrus Salad recipe.
Ramen Noodle Salad
Head over to your pantry for this fun idea! Instant ramen noodles, cashews, and sesame seeds are baked until toasty. Then they get tossed with slaw mix, green onions, and mandarin oranges, along with a sweet and savory dressing.
Get the Ramen Noodle Salad recipe.
Lemon Herb Pasta Salad
You can skip the segments and still get bright lemony flavor from zest and juice. It makes this pasta salad, loaded with peas, feta, and marinated artichokes, almonds, and herbs really pop. You’ll love the zippy homemade dressing, too.
Get the Lemon Herb Pasta Salad recipe.
Fruit Salad with Grapefruit-Vanilla Syrup
Not all salads are savory! Give seasonally sweet berries even more flavor by adding grapefruit segments and tossing it all together with a citrusy-sweet syrup made with warm vanilla.
Sunrise Fruit Salad
Another sweet fruit salad idea is this ray of sunshine on a plate! It features oranges, mango, pineapple, cantaloupe, and watermelon. Even better? It’s topped with toasted coconut for a taste of the tropics.
Get Ree’s Sunrise Fruit Salad recipe.
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