Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad

by Sabrina Snyder

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8 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
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Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad is a vibrant salad that’s sweet, tangy, and perfect for a festive meal or made from holiday leftovers!

Finished green salad with turkey and cranberries

Sabrina’s Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad Recipe

The perfect after-Thanksgiving meal to use up leftover turkey and detox from mashed potatoes and pie! This recipe is the easiest dish you’ll love this weekend and continue to make all year long! There are many amazing textures at work here in this salad. Let’s examine why they work together so well and some alternative options if you’d like to swap things in and out:

Recipe Card

Dinner, then Dessert

Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad Recipe

Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad is a vibrant salad that's sweet, tangy, and perfect for a festive meal or made from holiday leftovers!
Yield 8 Servings
Prep Time 10 minutes
Cook Time 0 minutes
Total Time 10 minutes
Course Dinner
Cuisine American
Author Sabrina Snyder
Finished green salad with turkey and cranberries
PrintRate

Ingredients
 

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE:

  • 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
  • 1 garlic clove , minced
  • 1/4 cup olive oil
  • 1/4 teaspoon Kosher salt
  • 1/8 teaspoon coarse ground black pepper

SALAD:

  • 1 pound baby arugula
  • 2 cups turkey breast , cooked and chopped
  • 6 ounces gorgonzola crumbles
  • 1/3 cup dried cranberries
  • 1/2 cup walnut halves

Instructions

BALSAMIC VINAIGRETTE

  • Add the vinegar, garlic, and mustard to a bowl and whisk well.
  • Slowly pour in the olive oil while whisking vigorously to combine them.
  • Add in salt and pepper and whisk together a final time.

SALAD

  • Add the arugula to a large serving platter or into four plates.
  • Add on the remaining ingredients, then dress with the dressing just before serving.

Nutrition

Calories: 267kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 16g | Fat: 18g | Saturated Fat: 6g | Polyunsaturated Fat: 5g | Monounsaturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 35mg | Sodium: 1049mg | Potassium: 428mg | Fiber: 2g | Sugar: 7g | Vitamin A: 1510IU | Vitamin C: 9mg | Calcium: 220mg | Iron: 2mg

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Table of contents

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Ingredients

  • Arugula: What does Arugula taste like? Arugula is a peppery leaf, sometimes used as an herb or a green. Unlike romaine or iceberg lettuce that is just filler flavored with dressing, arugula will stand up to a dressing and still deliver a unique flavor to the salad. It can sometimes taste bitter if the arugula was allowed to mature too much, so the younger the better, I use baby arugula in salads.
  • Dried cranberries: Dried Cranberries are a great salad topper that are popular with both kids and adults. Most dried cranberries are sweetened, so don’t think they’ll taste anything like a raw cranberry.
  • Walnuts: Walnuts are a healthy addition to the salad as they’re rich in omega-3s and antioxidants. The nuts add a great contrast in texture to the soft turkey, the chewy cranberries and the creamy gorgonzola, so be sure to include something with a similar texture if you’re looking to lose the nuts in the salad.
  • Gorgonzola: A personal favorite, gorgonzola is a soft cheese with a huge punch of flavor. Gorgonzola is more aromatic and flavorful than blue cheese, but blue cheese is sharper. So think of it as the mellower cousin to blue cheese. Looking to swap out a different cheese?

Variations

  • Lettuce: Looking for something less intense than arugula? Iceberg, romaine, green leaf and red leaf lettuces are all good options. Spinach, mâche and mesclun mixes are also good options.
  • Fruit options: Instead of dried cranberries, you could try raisins, dried blueberries, dried strawberries, dried figs or chopped dates. Want a non dried option? Chopped fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or even pomegranate arils would work well here.
  • Nuts: You can substitute pecans, candied pecans, almonds, hazelnuts or chopped brazil nuts in the salad as well.
  • Cheese: Feta, goat cheese, blue cheese and even cotija are good options. The cheese provides a great creamy texture to the salad, so if you want to take out the cheese altogether, chopped avocado would add a similar creamy texture.
  • Turkey: Turkey is the protein of the moment but any other protein would be great here too. Shrimp, salmon, chicken, thinly sliced beef would all be great options. Vegetarian options could include roasted vegetables like sweet potatoes or bell peppers. I also sometimes substitute kidney beans when making vegetarian salads.

More Holiday Sides

Collage with photos of finished cranberry salad with banner in the center

These photos were used in a previous version of this post

Mixed salad with dressing on the side
Salad made with thanksgiving leftovers
Large bowl of dressed cranberry salad

About the Author: Sabrina Snyder

Sabrina is a professionally trained Private Chef of over 10 years with ServSafe Manager certification in food safety. She creates all the recipes here on Dinner, then Dessert, fueled in no small part by her love for bacon.

Sabrina Snyder is a professionally trained personal and private chef of over 10 years who is the creator and developer of all the recipes on Dinner, then Dessert.

She is also the author of the cookbook Dinner, then Dessert – Satisfying Meals Using Only 3, 5 or 7 Ingredients, published by Harper Collins.

She started Dinner, then Dessert as a business in her office as a lunch service for her coworkers who admired her lunches before going to culinary school and becoming a full time personal chef and private chef.

As a personal chef Sabrina would cook for families one day a week and cook their entire week of dinners. All grocery shopping, cooking and cleaning was done along with instructions on reheating. As a private chef she cooked for private parties and cooked in family homes in the evenings for families on a nightly basis after working as a personal chef during the day.

Sabrina has been certified as a ServSafe Manager since 2007 and was a longstanding member of the USPCA Personal Chef Association including being on the board of the Washington DC Chapter of Chefs in the US Personal Chef Association when they won Chapter of the year.

As a member of the community of food website creators Sabrina Snyder has spoken at many conferences regarding her experiences as a food writer including the Indulge Food Conference, Everything Food Conference, Haven Food Conference and IACP Annual Food Professionals Conference.

Sabrina lives with her family in sunny California.

See more posts by Sabrina

Dinner, then Dessert, Inc. owns the copyright on all images and text and does not allow for its original recipes and pictures to be reproduced anywhere other than at this site unless authorization is given. Read my disclosure and copyright policy. This post may contain affiliate links.

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