Summer Citrus Salad with Fig & Feta Cheese
As the weather starts to warm up, there’s something so refreshing about a light Summer Citrus Salad made with fresh grapefruit, oranges, fig, feta cheese, pistachios, and a citrus honey vinaigrette. Serve it with grilled chicken or salad for a full meal, or enjoy as a first course or light meal.
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While you can enjoy this delicious salad anytime of the year, it’s particularly perfect for warm summer months. The light, tangy flavors of fresh grapefruit and oranges pair well with creamy feta cheese, crunchy roasted pistachios, and sweet dried figs for a delicious meal.
What’s great about this salad is that it’s made with just 7 ingredients + the homemade salad dressing. It’s healthy, easy to make, and you can customize to according to your own taste.
About the Ingredients
- Mixed Salad Greens: Use leafy mixed greens such as spinach, arugula, romaine, baby kale, chard, or frisee. They give a variety of texture and flavors that work well as a base for this salad.
- Grapefruit: With its slightly bitter taste and tangy flavor, grapefruit helps to balance out the sweeter flavors in this salad like the naval oranges and dried figs.
- Naval Oranges: With its sweet flavor, naval oranges help to balance the tangy taste of the grapefruit, and works so nicely with the creaminess of the feta cheese. You can also use mandarin oranges, tangerines, or tangelos.
- Feta Cheese: Light and slightly salty, feta cheese contracts nicely with the fresh mixed greens and citrus fruit.
- Dried Figs: Packed full of sweetness, dried figs work well with the citrus fruit and feta cheese to bring all the flavors together and give great texture too.
- Pistachios: Opt for roasted pistachios to give a rich, nutty crunch to this salad.
- Dressing: Made with olive oil, orange juice, rice vinegar, and honey, this simple vinaigrette brings together all the flavors in this salad.
How to Make This Salad
Place the salad greens into a large serving bowl or individual bowls. Top with grapefruit and oranges.
Top the greens with the feta cheese, fix, and pistachios. Drizzle the Honey Citrus Vinaigrette Dressing over the salad, and gently toss to coat all the ingredients evenly.
Serve the salad immediately after tossing in the dressing. This will ensure the kale doesn’t get soggy.
Variations & Substitutions
You have a lot of options to customize this Summer Citrus Salad based on your preferences or what you have available. What works well is the combination of salad greens, citrus fruit, light cheese, roasted nuts for texture, and the sweetness of dried fruit.
- Substitute for Mixed Greens: Use chopped romaine lettuce, baby kale, arugula or rocket, spring mix, butter lettuce, spinach, microgreens or other leafy greens of your choice.
- Substitute for Feta Cheese: Try goat cheese, ricotta cheese, gorgonzola cheese, or even blue cheese.
- Substitute for Grapefruit: Omit or opt for another citrus fruit.
- Substitute for Naval Oranges: Try mandarin oranges, clementines, blood oranges, tangerines, tangelos, or pomelos.
- Substitute for Fig: Use dried cranberries, dried blueberries, dried apricots, or dates.
- Substitute for Pistachios: There are a lot of options like roasted walnuts, pecans, sunflower seeds, almonds, and hemp seeds.
How to Store Leftovers
If you have leftovers, store the citrus salad in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to two days. Keep the dressing separate and add it just before serving to prevent the salad from becoming soggy.
Serving Suggestions
- Serve this salad as an appetizer before a main meal.
- Pair this salad with a protein like grilled chicken, salmon or tofu and enjoy as a meal.
- Serve this salad as a side dish for a family meal. It would pair nicely with chicken, fish, shrimp, etc.
- Add this salad to a sandwich or tortilla wrap with your favorite protein and use the salad dressing as a sauce.
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Summer Citrus Salad with Fig & Feta Cheese
Equipment
- 4 individual bowls
Ingredients
- 5 oz mixed salad greens
- 1 grapefruit peeled, sectioned
- 2 naval oranges peeled, sectioned
- ¼ cup Feta cheese crumbled
- ¼ cup dried figs diced
- ¼ cup roasted pistachios
- 3 tbsp honey citrus vinaigrette
Instructions
- Place the salad greens into a large serving bowl or individual bowls.
- Top the greens with the grapefruit, oranges, feta cheese, fix, and pistachios.
- Prior serving, drizzle the dressing over the salad and toss to coat.
