This Orange and Goat Cheese Salad is a bright flavorful salad featuring juicy oranges and tomatoes, crunchy walnuts, and creamy goat cheese. It's hearty enough to eat on its own for lunch or it can be enjoyed as a side dish with dinner.

Whenever we make salads, we focus on two key attributes: delicious toppings and a solid topping-to-lettuce ratio. Without tasty toppings, the chances we'll truly enjoy our salad are somewhat slim. This Orange and Goat Cheese Salad has exactly these characteristics. There are also enough healthy toppings so that each bite of lettuce includes some element of fruit, cheese, or nuts.

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A Balanced Salad
Ingredients
Instructions
Substitutions
Variations
Equipment
Storage
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Orange and Goat Cheese Salad
Food safety

A Balanced Salad

Making salads with healthy, hearty ingredients adds more dimension to a salad. When making a salad, we like to include at least two vegetables or fruits other than lettuce, nuts, cheese, and a light dressing. Each ingredient should add a specific flavor without overwhelming the entire dish. A light balsamic dressing is all you need to dress a salad without detracting from the other ingredients. This Orange and Goat Cheese Salad has all of these elements and is a perfect way to enjoy all of these delicious flavors in one meal.

Ingredients

Red leaf lettuce - A more nutritious alternative to standard lettuce heads.
Cherry tomatoes - Provide juicy explosions of flavor in each bite.
Blood orange - More tart and rich than normal oranges, they add a sweet pop to the salad.
Creamy Goat cheese - A strong and earthy cheese to balance the sweetness of the oranges and tomatoes.
Walnuts - Adds a hearty crunch.
Extra Virgin Olive oil - The base for this salad.
Honey - Adds a hint of sweetness to the salad.
Balsamic vinegar - A rich, concentrated vinegar originating in Italy. It has a syrupy texture and a dark, bold balsamic flavor.
Freshly cracked pepper - Provides a spicy kick to the salad.
Chives - Provide a mild oniony taste to the salad.

Instructions

Make the dressing - In a medium or large mixing bowl, add olive oil, honey, balsamic vinegar, salt, and pepper. Whisk vigorously until the dressing is well-blended. Set aside.
Make the salad - In a medium or large salad bowl, add lettuce. Top the lettuce with tomatoes, oranges, goat cheese, and walnuts.
Dress the salad and serve - Lightly drizzle dressing on top of salad and toss with salad servers. Top the salad with chives and serve.

Substitutions

Nuts - Replace walnuts with toasted walnuts, pecans, or your favorite hearty nut.
Vegan - To make this salad vegan, omit the goat cheese or use vegan cheese.
Lettuce - Use butter lettuce, kale, arugula, spinach salad, or mix a few different lettuces instead of red lettuce.
Parmigiano-Reggiano - Thinly slice Pargmigiano-Reggiano instead of goat cheese for a milder flavor.

Variations

Lemon juice - Adds acidity and balances out the other rich flavors.
Beets - Beets are a nutritious addition that pairs perfectly with goat cheese.

Equipment

This easy gluten free salad requires just a few kitchen essentials, all of which you can use for many other common recipes. To make this salad, you will need a knife, cutting board, mixing bowl, salad bowl or platter, and salad servers.

To explore more kitchen items to make your kitchen complete, head to our shop: Kat’s Kitchen Essentials.

Storage

This orange salad is best served fresh. However, you can store the leftovers in an air-tight container in the refrigerator. Enjoy within the next day so the lettuce will still be crisp and the toppings remain intact.

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Food safety

Don't leave food sitting out at room temperature for extended periods

See more guidelines at USDA.gov.

Orange and Goat Cheese Salad