Christmas Salad Recipe

🍊 The clementines

Don’t overthink it: peel the clementines and separate them into segments, the thin white skin can stay. They keep their juice inside, and every bite bursts in your mouth. Mandarins work just as well if that’s what you find at the grocery store. Keep one clementine aside for the dressing’s juice and zest, and zest it before you squeeze it.

🔪 Fennel on the mandoline

The fennel needs to be sliced very thin, almost see-through, so it stays crunchy without being tough to chew. A mandoline does it in seconds, and every slice is even. Always use the hand guard: fennel slices slip easily and a mandoline doesn’t forgive. Keep a few of the green fennel fronds to decorate the top of the salad.

🍁 My maple pecans

Toast them over medium heat, no higher, because maple syrup goes from caramelized to burnt very fast. Once they’re well coated, spread them right away on parchment paper, apart from each other. If you leave them in a pile, they stick together and you end up with a block. They keep for a few weeks at room temperature in an airtight container.

🥗 Build the salad in two steps

Put three quarters of the clementines and pomegranate seeds and half the goat cheese right into the salad. Keep the rest for the top, with the pecans. That way, every plate gets some of everything, not just arugula, and the top of the bowl still looks great when you bring it to the table. That’s what makes the difference between a salad and a holiday salad.

🫙 The clementine dressing

Pour in half the dressing, toss, then taste before adding the rest. Some people like it lighter, others more generous, it’s really up to you. Make it in a jar with a lid: you shake it, it’s ready, and the rest goes straight into the fridge. It easily keeps two weeks in the fridge, just shake it well before serving.

🍎 Seeding a pomegranate without painting the kitchen

Cut the pomegranate in half, hold one half cut side down over a bowl, then tap the top with a wooden spoon. The seeds fall right into the bowl, and it splashes a lot less. Pick out the little bits of white pith that fall in with them, they’re bitter. Wear an apron, pomegranate juice really stains.

🎁 For a potluck

Pack everything separately: the arugula in its box, the fennel and onion together, the fruit, the cheese, the pecans and the dressing in its jar. Once you get there, toss the salad in a big bowl right before serving. If you toss it at home, it’ll show up all wilted. This way, it’s just as crisp at your friends’ place as it is at yours.

🍽️ What to serve it with

As a starter, it opens the holiday meal gently. As a side, it’s perfect next to my clementine and cranberry turkey, which has the same flavors. It also balances a rich dish really well, like a meat pie or a ham. Its freshness feels great in the middle of a loaded table.

❄️ Storage

Once it’s dressed, the salad has to be eaten right away: leftovers don’t keep, the arugula goes limp. If you make too much, keep some ingredients aside without mixing them. The pecans keep a few weeks in an airtight container, and the dressing two weeks in the fridge. The clementines and fennel keep in the fridge in a closed container.

📅 Make-ahead prep

Make your maple pecans and dressing up to two days ahead. The morning of, slice the fennel and onion, separate the clementines and seed the pomegranate, then store everything in the fridge in labeled containers. When it’s time to serve, all that’s left is to put the arugula in the bowl, add the fruit and dressing, and top it. The dressing, pomegranate seeds and pecans always go on at the last minute.

✅ What to serve with my Christmas salad recipe

Serve it with my clementine and cranberry turkey and my cranberry sauce with apples. For another fresh salad, try my fennel, orange and black olive salad or my white balsamic arugula salad.