Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad (2024)

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BY Karina | 10 Comments

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Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad screams FALL! Cranberries, Spinach, Walnuts And BACON! All drizzled with the most perfect Honey Dijon Dressing!

This salad is absolutely amazing. Not only is it perfect for Thanksgiving, but for any time of the year! We could NOT STOP EATING THIS ONE!With a house constantly full of people — aka the Entice Films crew — the bonus is getting everyone to try my recipes before unleashing them to the world. Well, to over 5 million monthly visitors of you!

THIS SALAD is all of your side salad dreams come true! And I have so many salads on here — most of them main meal type of salads because simple salads do nothing to my stomach and hunger pains. Except for this one. This one is CRAZY good, and went so brilliantly with this Crispy Slow Cooker Turkey!

This salad starts off with one of my favourite salad dressings. A honey mustard (or Honey Dijon, to be more specific), like this one I used in this . Cutting a few elements out from that dressing to accomodate it for this one, I was NOT disappointed. THREE TIMES over not disappointed.

The prefect ratio of honey, dijon mustard, apple cider vinegar and olive oil.

Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad!

HOW TO MAKE IT?

This salad is so easy is doesn’t need instructions. But I’ll add them in anyway.
Make sure your ingredients are FRESH! There’s nothing worse than soggy spinach. You can also use a spinach salad mix OR romaine lettuce OR even raw Kale if you’re into it! I buy already washed leaves to make my life easier.
Put your bacon on to cook first while you prep the rest of your ingredients.
You can really add anything you want to this. I used walnuts that my pro Entice Films baker threw into a frying pan with a dash of ground cumin. Yeah, you heard. It was AMAZEBALLS. You don’t have to do this, of course, it’s completely up to you. You could also use pecans, almonds or cashews instead.
Can I just express here how much I LOVE cranberries! They add just the right punch of sweetness on your taste buds. If you don’t like them, sub them with chopped dried dates, apricots or figs!
Also, let’s talk Feta cheese. PLEASE for the love of all that is awesome, try to find a fresh Feta instead of a packaged one. The fresh Feta from the deli is super creamy and doesn’t beat the hardened Feta you find in plastic packaging. I use Danish Feta, but any you find that’s nice and creamy is the BEST ONE for this salad.
Onion rings? YES PLEASE! If you don’t like the punch of red onion flavour, you can soak them in water for a good 10 minutes. This turns the pungent onion flavour into a more mild one. Or sub with a couple tablespoons of sliced green scallions.
Apples: which kind? I used green Granny Smith for my bitter-tasting-apples loving husband, and red delicious apples for me. You could also use Gala, Fuji or Pink Lady. We found half of each is enough.
I don’t add any salt in the dressing purely because the bacon and feta have enough salt to balance this salad out nicely. You can add salt and pepper though. It’s up to you!

Let me know what you think in the comments below! Don’t forget to check out the other salads below the recipe box!

Honey Mustard Chicken, Avocado + Bacon Salad

Balsamic Chickpea Avocado Feta Salad

Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad

Author: Karina

Honey Dijon Apple Bacon Cranberry Salad screams FALL! Cranberries, Spinach, Walnuts And BACON! All drizzled with the most perfect Honey Dijon Dressing!

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Prep: 10 minutes mins

Cook: 5 minutes mins

Total: 15 minutes mins

Serves: 4 serves, as a side

Ingredients

Salad:

▢ 4-6 cups baby spinach or mixed salad leaves including spinach
▢ 1/2 cup dried cranberries
▢ 1/2 cup crushed walnuts
▢ 1/3 cup Danish feta cheese
▢ 1/2 sweet red apple sliced
▢ 1/2 granny smith apple sliced
▢ 1/4 cup sliced red onion
▢ 4 slices bacon cooked and sliced or chopped

Dressing:

▢ 4 tablespoons olive oil
▢ 3 tablespoons honey
▢ 1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar
▢ 3-4 teaspoons Dijon mustard

Instructions

Add all of the SALAD ingredients into a large salad bowl.
Combine all of the DRESSING ingredients in a smaller bowl and mix well. Pour the dressing over the salad.

Nutrition

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Comments

Beth says
October 17, 2023 at 9:02 am

Just made it for the second time in one weekend and guests and family all requested the recipe! Perfect salad and especially delicious in fall with all the apples in season. I used cherries for the cranberries and toasted the walnuts. Best dressing ever. Thank you!
Reply
- Karina says
  December 18, 2023 at 5:00 pm
  Hi Beth, it’s wonderful to hear that the salad was such a hit with both guests and family! Using cherries in place of cranberries and toasting the walnuts are excellent personal touches. I’m thrilled that you enjoyed the dressing, and it sounds like you’ve mastered a delicious fall salad.
  Reply
Rox says
September 10, 2023 at 6:17 pm

Delicious (and I even forgot to add the bacon!). Will definitely make this again. Thank you for posting it!
Reply
Karen says
December 23, 2022 at 1:53 pm

Absolutely delicious!
Reply
Jacquelyn Fessler says
December 04, 2022 at 10:48 am

Made this for dinner tonight – followed recipe exactly but added diced cooked chicken so we could make it a meal. As we started eating the salad my husband commented that it would be really good with beets in it – so we added canned beets to the meal. With or without the addition of beets this was an awesome meal!!! Will definitely make again! Thank you for the yummy recipe!!
Reply
Steph A says
November 22, 2018 at 5:48 am

This was so yummy – I totally forgot the onion but the rest was light and perfect, just sweet enough in my opinion. It’s so perfect I’m bringing it to my family’s Thanksgiving to offset the heavier things (like the creamy parmesan bacon brussel sprouts I also made from this site, oh man, so good!!!). I think it’s a salad that folks will actually make room for on their Thanksgiving plate! 🙂
Reply
Adriana says
June 13, 2018 at 11:41 pm

So simple but very delicious. I used mixed greens and baby spinach. Unfortunately since the red onion isnt suggested in the actual list of ingredients it was omitted but I think it would add a nice touch next time. I used creamy feta as suggested and cut it myself which did make a difference (we used leftover slices of apples/feta as a snack to go with our wine too). The dressing seemed a little sweet at first (I would start out with 2 tbs honey then add the 3rd as needed) but it evened out nicely spread out over the salad. Definitely making that again for other salads. 3rd time making a recipe from here for date-night with great success! Loving everything!
Reply
Marjorie Holste says
November 25, 2017 at 12:54 pm

I made the Honey, Dijon, cranberry, bacon salad this evening. I served it with grilled, sliced Rib Eye steak. Delicious! I used half the Dijon, added thin slices of red onion, cucumber,sliced pear, and avocado. Very satisfying. Thank you for this wonderful recipe ?
Reply
- Brooke C. says
  November 08, 2021 at 2:35 am
  
  I took this salad to a Friendsgiving and it was a hit! Even the people who don’t like salad ate two servings. I really liked the Danish feta; it was much mellower which is great for a crowd with all different preferences. I also soaked the apples in one cup of water with 1/2 teaspoon of salt dissolved in it to prevent browning; it doesn’t change the flavor of the apples and they stayed fresh looking the whole time. I will definitely be making this salad again.
  Reply
Patricia B says
November 20, 2017 at 12:23 am

I made this yesterday for our Thanksgiving feast. Yea I know it was early, but the kids have their own thing to do on actual Thanksgiving. Doubled the recipe and it was gone!! So easy, peasy you really didn’t need to add directions. Went perfect with the crispy skin slow cooker turkey recipe of yours, which another easy, peasy recipe. Another keeper!
Thank you for sharing and have a wonderful Thanksgiving.
Reply