Orange, Fennel and Avocado Salad

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This simple Orange, Fennel and Avocado Salad recipe is tossed with fresh greens and mint, toasted almonds, and a quick honey-citrus dressing.  Feel free to add in an extra protein (such as salmon, chicken or shrimp) if you’d like too.

Who’s ready for a fresh and healthy green salad right about now? ♡

We’ve been on a big clementine oranges kick in our house this winter, partly because they are a must in every home in Barcelona during the holidays (to feed Caga Tió) and partly because I’ve been craving them during pregnancy non-stop!  So naturally, they have made it into a few of our salads over the past few months.  And this particular salad has turned into one of our faves.

It’s quick and easy to toss together with clementines (or any other oranges you have on hand), fresh greens, creamy avocado, crisp red onion, toasted almonds, and a quick honey citrus dressing.  But the ingredients that really make this salad memorable are those thinly-sliced wisps of crisp fennel and the generous helping of fresh mint leaves.  They instantly add some delicious depth of flavor to each bite and complement the citrus beautifully.  So refreshing, especially this time of year!

This salad works great as a healthy entrée, or it can also be served as a vibrant side salad.  I’ve written the recipe to be both gluten-free and vegan, but feel free to add in some cheese and/or an additional protein if you’d like (such as chicken, steak, shrimp or salmon).  And if you happen to be out of fresh oranges, those retro canned mandarin oranges would also work well too.

Let’s make some salad!

Orange Salad Ingredients:

Before we get to the full recipe below, here are a few notes about the ingredients you will need to make this orange salad…

• Greens: I used a basic spring greens mix, but feel free to use whatever fresh greens you happen to have on hand.
• Oranges: I went with fresh clementines for this salad, but you could sub in larger fresh oranges (navel or blood oranges), canned mandarin oranges, or even grapefruit.
• Avocado: Which adds the perfect balance of creaminess to this salad.
• Fennel: Love the extra crispness and delicate anise flavor that it lends to this salad.  I recommend slicing the fennel as thinly as possible.
• Red onion: Likewise, I also recommend slicing the onion as thinly as possible.  (You can give the slices a quick rinse of water, if you would like to soften their flavor.)  Or alternately, you could thinly slice some shallots instead.
• Fresh mint: I added lots of fresh mint to my salad, which pairs so beautifully with the citrus and fennel.  But feel free to add however much or little you prefer.
• Almonds: Which I recommend toasting briefly in the oven or in a skillet before adding to the salad, to bring out their best flavor.
• Dressing: Finally, I just used my everyday salad dressing recipe for this salad, made with an extra tablespoon (or two) of honey to make it a bit sweeter.

Possible Variations:

Want to customize this salad a bit?  Here are a few ideas of other ingredients you could add or swap in…

• Add a protein: Any type. of cooked chicken, steak, salmon or shrimp would all taste delicious with this salad.
• Add cheese: Any type of aged hard cheese (such as a good Manchego, Pecorino or Parmesan) or a tangy soft cheese (such as goat cheese or gorgonzola) would also be a delicious addition to this salad.
• Use different nuts/seeds: Feel free to swap in toasted pecans, walnuts, pistachios, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, pepitas or any other type of nuts/seeds that you love in place of the almonds.

More Fresh Green Salad Recipes:

Looking for some more green salad recipes to try?  Here are a few of my my faves…

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