Cranberry Sauce Salad

The Cranberry Sauce Salad is a simple recipe with a simple job: be the (delicious) break from the heaviness of the Thanksgiving table. But here’s the thing, if I am deciding to leave my beloved stuffing for a bite of something else – that something else had better be GOOD. And this Cranberry Sauce Salad is THAT good. It’s filled with tender greens, bright, refreshing crunch, and a salad dressing that is sweet and acidic in a way that makes you crave it. I can’t rave about this salad enough.

If you are thinking about skipping a salad on Thanksgiving, consider just adding in this salad instead. I mean you already have cranberry sauce to spare.

The types of lettuces I like for this salad

Thanksgiving is a treat holiday, so I want to use *treat* lettuces. Meaning: lettuces we aren’t whipping out any old time. I like radicchio for its bitter notes, and endive for how it easily slices into big, scoopable cups.

Both of these lettuces I keep in big leaves. This is so they catch all that dressing, but also so the presentation of the salad is beautiful without us even having to try that hard.

How to make the cranberry sauce dressing

Since our cranberry sauce is already tart, juicy and filled with baking spices, it really doesn’t need much else to become a smooth, emulsified and layered dressing. Here’s everything you want to whisk together:

1/4 cup cranberry sauce
2 tablespoons honey
2 tablespoons red wine vinegar
1/2 cup extra-virgin olive oil
1/2 teaspoon Diamond Crystal kosher salt (use half if using Morton’s)
Freshly cracked black pepper

It becomes completely smooth after a few minutes whisking. It might err on the sweet side, but the bitter lettuces will help round that out in the best way.

Herbs, pears and pomegranate

In the world of fall salads, herbs + pears + pomegranate are three elements you’ll see pop up on my favorites list over and over. Pears are mild and sweet, while pomegranates are juicy and tart. And when it come to bitter lettuces, herbs always help pull everything together.

This cranberry sauce salad is remarkably restrained, but I find these three elements are all I need to make it the salad I want to be eating.

Other add-ins you can do

I always say with this salad, less is so much more. When you start adding in bread crumbs or nuts, you start layering in some saltier, heavier elements that makes this salad feel less like a counterpoint to the Thanksgiving meal and more like another big recipe on the table. Let this salad be light and uncomplicated if you can, I find it’s more craveable that way.

If you do want to riff and play around, I love ideas like:

• Green apple for some tartness and crunch
• Sliced oranges or grapefruit
• More tender herbs, like chopped scallions or chives
• Slivered red onion that was soaked in ice water to temper its bite
• Dried cranberries in lieu of pomegranate

You see where I’m going with this – sweet over heavy, acidic over salty. It works, just trust me!

You can watch me make the full recipe here!