This post may contain affiliate links. For more information, see our privacy policy.
Once you try this delicious Cranberry-Avocado Salad with Sweet White Balsamic Vinaigrette, you'll find yourself craving it again and again! It's bright, fresh and beyond versatile.
It's perfect for a quick lunch, a fancy brunch, a lovely side salad or a complete meal with chicken, shrimp or pork tenderloin piled on top. You can add goat cheese, blue cheese or any other fun cheese that strikes your fancy. It's wonderful with spinach, Romaine, field greens, Bibb lettuce, arugula ................ did I miss your favorite? Well, it's great with that too! Feel free to change out the nut also - don't have any almonds? Candied Spiced Pecans would be a fabulous switcheroo!
For holidays, you could add a sprinkle of crimson pomegranate seeds or how about a scatter of blood orange or ruby red grapefruit wedges? Slivers of mango are beautiful as well as grape halves or sliced crisp apples or pears. Are you starting to get the picture? It's another Little Black Dress Recipe; totally adaptable, simple or elegant, dress it up or down depending on the occasion. I keep a jar in the fridge so we can have a delicious salad on the spur of the moment with whatever's in season and/or whatever's stashed in my fruit/veggie bins!
The recipe below is for my Cranberry-Avocado Salad with Candied Spiced Almonds and Sweet White Balsamic Vinaigrette (the almonds from yesterday's post) but feel free to have use the dressing for other salads and to adapt the recipe according to your tastes, whims, cravings, pantry and budget!
Want to see more delicious recipes from The Café? Sign up for our EMAIL SUBSCRIPTION. That way you'll never miss a post, or any of our "TIPS, TRICKS and IDEAS" emails, which you won't find here on the blog.
You can join us on FACEBOOK and TWITTER as well as INSTAGRAM - we have lots of fun over there!
We're forever pinning recipes and inspirational ideas on PINTEREST - just click to follow us.
- Ingredients for the dressing:
- ⅓ cup sugar
- 1 ½ tablespoons poppy seeds
- 1 ½ tablespoons sesame seeds
- ½ teaspoon paprika
- 2 teaspoons dried mustard
- 1 tablespoon minced sweet onion
- ½ teaspoon sea salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ½ cup white balsamic vinegar
- ⅓ cup vegetable oii
- ⅓ cup extra virgin olive oil
- Ingredients for the salad:
- 12 ounces baby spinach arugula, field greens
- 1 small bunch cilantro washed and dried, leaves removed whole from stems
- 2 medium avocados peeled and halved
- ¾ cup dried cranberries
- ¾ cup Candied Spiced Almonds
-
For the dressing, combine all ingredients in a pint sized glass jar and shake well to dissolve sugar.
-
For the salad, place greens and cilantro leaves in a large bowl. Add avocado and dried cranberries and about ¼ cup of the dressing and toss gently. Scatter candied almonds over salad and sprinkle lightly with sea salt and freshly ground black pepper. Pass extra dressing at the table.
Anna @ Crunchy Creamy Sweet says
Oooh!! The candied spiced almonds are brilliant!! Love the salad and the vinaigrette!
The Café Sucré Farine says
I'm sorry but I don't have the nutritional information on this salad. Maybe someone else out there does.....?
Pirzen says
how many calories does this salad have? does anyone know?
The Café Sucré Farine says
So happy you enjoyed this! It seems to be a hit with quite a few people! Thanks for taking the time to leave a comment!
Linda d. says
Just made this salad tonight, and it was a hit! Only change I made was to use olive oil, instead of a blend, and I didn't caramelize the sliced almonds, but simply toasted them. It was still delicious! The dressing is lovely!....maybe next time I'll go the extra step with the nuts....I'm sure it will be even more amazing!! Thank you, this a keeper!
The Café Sucré Farine says
Thanks for getting back about your salad results! That's amazing that your 8 year old will eat salad! My kids wouldn't touch anything with lettuce till they got much older, BRAVO to you!
DanaH says
This salad was just delicious! It's one my favorites now too. I added grilled chicken breast but shrimp or salmon would also be great! My 8 yr old son and husband raved about this salad so "thank you" for a recipe that left us with full tummies and smiling faces.
The Café Sucré Farine says
Dana, pecans should work just as well. Hope you enjoy the salad, it's one of our favorites!
DanaH says
Just made the candied and spiced almonds. They are YUMMY! I could eat them all up right now...but will wait to try them on the Cranberry-Avocado Salad for dinner.
I want to try this with pecans. Do I need to adjust the recipe?
PolkaDotPrincess says
I saw this on Pinterest and all I can say is, "Wow, this looks yummy!" I can hardly wait to be able to make it!
luv2cook says
This is an incredible salad. My husband and I decided it was our favorite.
Saar says
The salad and dressing look so so so incredibly amazing!!
Delicious!
Eden says
This looks amazing and something I could easily get addicted to. I hope you don't mind that your recipe (full credit & linkback to source of course) was added to this roundup of delicious summer salads.
The Best Summer Salads
The Café Sucré Farine says
Thanks so much for taking the time to leave a comment - I love your addition of cucumber!
Anonymous says
Wonderful salad!! Made this for Easter dinner. I did add some cucumber and made the dressing with regular (non-white) balsamic just because that's what I had. It was amazing; and it trickled over to my ham and tasted great on it too 🙂
The Café Sucré Farine says
Thanks, Janet for leaving a comment - this salad has definitely become an all time favorite with the readers of the Café!
Janet McNichol says
Saw this recipe on Pinterest yesterday and made it for dinner. Delicious!
Sew Flippin Cool says
Your salad looks fantastic and I'm totally going to make it for lunch today. I"ve shared it with my readers at The Handmade Experiment. http://emilyflippinmaruna.wordpress.com/2012/02/28/must-make-monday-dairy-free-foods/
Thanks and feel free to grab a button if you're interested!
Emily
Toni Kelly says
I just wanted to let you know I found your recipe on Pinterest. I made this over the weekend and could not get enough of it. Absolutely delicious!!!
Mimi Avocado says
Love your salad! We share links to special recipes that include avocados every day on our Facebook page. Today we'll share yours! Facebook/Avocados_Direct
The Café Sucré Farine says
Good question that I forgot to address! Since there are no fresh herbs in this dressing it will last a good 10 days to 2 weeks
1
Towles says
How long does the salad dressing last in the fridge? Thanks!
Elev8 My Faith says
This is an amazing recipe, thank you. Sweet and savoury!
Towles kintz says
This salad was unbelievable! I served it with corn chowder tonight's and it made the meal. Thank you!
Margaret says
LOVE!your recipes & can't wait to try them. BUT...could you PLEASE turn off the snowflakes! They freeze my computer 🙁