Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad

Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad is a vibrant salad that’s sweet, tangy, and perfect to use up your Thanksgiving turkey leftovers! Try it soon!

This is the perfect Salad to enjoy during Thanksgiving weekend because it uses up the leftovers but it’s light and refreshing. Some of my other salads that would taste great with leftover turkey on top are my Beet Salad and Winter Pear Salad.

Sabrina’s Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad Recipe

The perfect after Thanksgiving meal to use up leftover turkey and detox from mashed potatoes and pie! Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad is the easiest salad you’ll love this weekend and continue to make all year long!

Recipe Card

About this Recipe

Cranberry Harvest Turkey Salad made with arugula, turkey breast, cranberries, gorgonzola, and walnuts with a delicious and easy balsamic vinaigrette. There’s so many amazing textures at work here in this salad, so let’s examine why they work together so well and some alternative variations if you’d like to swap things in and out.

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.
• Turkey: This salad is meant to be eaten after Thanksgiving to use up all the rest of your Roast Turkey or Butter Blanketed Turkey. This turkey should be juicy and tender and pairs well with the lightness of the other ingredients in the salad. If you are making this a different time of year (because you will want to), sliced deli turkey will do.
• 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.
• Dressing: This is a simple quick balsamic vinaigrette dressing made of balsamic vinegar, Dijon Mustard, garlic, olive oil and salt and pepper. This is the perfect dressing to tie together all of the flavors in the salad.

Can this be made ahead of time?

This salad won’t last well if you make it ahead of time but you can make some of the components ahead of time. Since it is intended to use leftover turkey, pick up the ingredients to make the salad while you are finishing up your last minute Thanksgiving shopping. You can make your dressing ahead of time and store it in the fridge for 1-2 weeks.

Recipe Tips & Tricks

• Toast your walnuts on the stovetop on low heat for 3-5 minutes to enhance their nutty flavor.
• You can soak your cranberries in a tablespoon of orange juice or apple cider vinegar to plump them up.
• Don’t toss this salad. It is best to put your arugula down and then layer the ingredients on top.
• Remember that you are using leftover turkey, so it is only good for 3-4 days after you originally cooked it. Putting it in a salad doesn’t extend it’s shelf life.

How to Store

• Serve: Enjoy after assembling this delicious salad recipe. You don’t want to leave it out for more than a couple of hours or it will start to wilt.
• Store: To store this salad, cover it in plastic wrap or put it in an airtight container to store in the fridge. If it is dressed, it will last about a day. If it is not dressed, it should stay good for 3-4 days. For best results, store all components separately without the dressing on it.
• Freeze: Unfortunately, the salad won’t freeze well, so after 4 days it’s best to throw a fresh batch together.

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.
• 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.
• Dried Fruit Options: Instead of dried cranberries, you could try raisins, dried blueberries, dried strawberries, dried figs or chopped dates.
• Fresh Fruit Option: Chopped fresh strawberries, raspberries, blueberries or even pomegranate arils would work well in the salad.
• 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.
• Nuts: You can substitute pecans, Candied Pecans, almonds, hazelnuts or chopped brazil nuts in the salad.
• Dressing: If you aren’t a fan Balsamic Vinaigrette, you could use my Greek Salad Dressing or Honey Mustard instead.

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These photos were used in a previous version of this post