A quick and easy Spring Mix Salad with carrots, blueberries, red onions, feta cheese, and walnuts drizzled with a six-ingredient homemade salad dressing. In less than 15 minutes, you can have a healthy, beautiful side dish bursting with the flavors of orange and blueberry.
Spring Mix Salad is Delicious and Healthy
This quick and easy Spring Mix Salad has abundant flavor and texture from vegetables, fruit, nuts, and cheese tossed in a light, tangy orange vinaigrette. It brings all the best that spring and summer can offer in one tasty salad. Enjoy this salad with grilled chicken or air-fryer salmon. If you love fresh salads like I do, try my pear salad, Christmas salad, Asian chopped salad, and seven-layer salad.
What is spring mix salad?
Spring mix is a blend of assorted baby greens and baby lettuce. The young greens included in the mix could be arugula, green chard, kale, red chard, baby spinach, endive, or radicchio. Some of the baby lettuces included might be green oak leaf, red leaf, red oak, tango loose leaf, or red or green romaine lettuce. Most grocery stores carry a prepackaged spring mix blend. This tender vegetation makes a fabulous salad, but watch your expiration dates as the leaves break down faster than a good, sturdy romaine or head of iceberg lettuce.
The ingredients for this Spring Mix Salad
- Spring Mix – look for a prepackaged blend that shows no signs of breaking down.
- Carrot – peel and trim the carrot first, removing the faded exterior color. Then, use the peeler to shave long, thin strips from the carrot. If desired, substitute shaved English cucumber. Other tasty vegetables to add include cherry tomatoes, avocado, radishes, baby peas, and asparagus.
- Blueberries – sort through the blueberries, removing any moldy or overripe berries. Other fresh fruit berries that you might include are strawberries, blackberries, or raspberries.
- Red Onion – use a very sharp knife or mandolin to thinly slice the onion.
- Feta – to keep it fresh, purchase a small block of feta and crumble it yourself. Goat cheese, Parmesan, and cotija cheese are good substitutes.
- Walnuts – for a little crunch. Try substituting other nuts like pecans, sliced almonds, or almond slivers. We also like sprinkling our spring greens with sunflower, pumpkin, and pine nuts for crunch.
- Champagne Vinegar – or substitute white wine vinegar.
- Orange Juice – freshly squeezed is best, and one orange will do the trick.
- Orange Zest – use the zest from the orange before you squeeze it.
- Honey – for a tad of sweetness.
- Dijon Mustard – for a little bit of tang.
- Olive Oil – so it will cling to the greens.
- Salt and Pepper – to suit your taste, but I love plenty of fresh cracked black pepper.
A Couple of Quick Tips
- The vinaigrette can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and stored in the fridge in an airtight container or mason jar.
- Spring greens are more delicate than sturdy Romaine, iceberg, or leaf lettuce, so keep that in mind when purchasing your ingredients.
- This salad is best enjoyed after it is tossed with the vinaigrette. That being said, store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge, but try to enjoy them as soon as possible.
How far in advance can you prep this salad
You can assemble this salad up to 24 hours in advance, but don’t add the feta, walnuts, and dressing until right before serving. You can prep the orange vinaigrette up to 48 hours in advance and store it in an airtight container in the fridge. A clean mason jar works well for this. Before serving, shake well to emulsify the vinegar and oil before drizzling on the salad. Drizzle lightly and toss to coat.
Recipe Variations
Put a spin on this salad with different fruits, veggies, nuts, and cheese. The combination of flavor and textures is endless in a spring mix salad.
- Fruit – try other berries like raspberries, blackberries, or strawberries. Or try dried fruit like cranberries, diced apricots, dates, or figs.
- Vegetables – try radishes, shaved parsnips, sweet bell peppers, or snap peas.
- Nuts – try pecan, almonds, pistachios, pine nuts, sunflower seeds, or pepitas.
- Cheese – try blue cheese, gorgonzola, goat cheese, or Parmesan Cheese.
More Salad Recipes
Spring Mix Salad
Ingredients
Spring Mix Salad
- 10 cups spring mix salad greens
- 1 large carrot peeled and shaved into long ribbons
- 1 cup blueberries
- ¼ cup thin sliced red onions
- ¼ cup feta cheese crumbles
- ¼ cup chopped walnuts
Orange Vinaigrette Dressing
- 2 tablespoons champagne vinegar or white wine vinegar
- ¼ cup orange juice about the juice from 1 orange
- 1 tablespoon orange zest
- 1 tablespoons honey
- 2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
- ⅓ cup olive oil
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
- Add the spring greens to a large bowl. Top with the carrots, blueberries, red onions, feta cheese, and walnuts.
- Whisk the champagne vinegar, orange juice, orange zest, honey, Dijon mustard, and a pinch of salt together.
- Drizzle the olive oil into the champagne vinegar mixture while slowly whisking. Season with salt and pepper to taste.
Notes
- The vinaigrette can be prepared up to 3 days in advance and stored in an airtight container or mason jar in the fridge.
- Spring greens are more delicate than sturdy Romaine, iceberg, or even leaf lettuce so keep that in mind with the purchase of your ingredients.
- This salad is best enjoyed after it is tossed with the vinaigrette. That being said, store leftovers in an airtight container in the fridge, but try to enjoy them as soon as possible.
Nutrition
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Sara K
This was everything a gourmet salad should be and then some! Loved the balance of flavors and textures in this light yet hearty salad!
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Sara! So glad that you liked it!
Talia
I made this salad with dinner last night and it was perfect! I loved the blend of savory and sweet flavors!
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Talia! So glad that you like the salad!
Sophia
This is tasty! I made it just as you wrote it without any changes and I love it. The balance of textures and flavors is spot on and the orange vinaigrette dressing is so tangy and refreshing. Thanks for the yummy salad recipe.
Beth Pierce
Thanks, Sophia! We love the orange vinaigrette too!
Sisley
I absolutely love this salad. It was so refreshing. Come on! Bring on spring!
Beth Pierce
I could not agree more!
dana
I love this salad! It’s so nourishing and refreshing and just want I needed to add a little brightness to this dreary cold day.
Juliet
This is such a fun salad! The orange dressing was nice and sweet. The carrots were super easy to prepare and looked so fancy. My husband and I ate this for our dinner, and we both enjoyed it a lot.
Beth Pierce
Thanks so much, Juliet, I am so glad that you liked the spring mix salad. A good salad can be sp refreshing.
Janie
I usually make this for dinner to have something light. I love spring mix salads and the dressing on here. Love the use of freshly squeezed OJ and vinegar!
Irena
My perfect lunch salad!!! So many delicious flavours, textures and colours in one bowl.
Kris
This was such a perfect salad – super yummy! Can’t wait to make again. 🙂
Beth Pierce
Thanks Kris! So glad that you liked it!
Sandra
Amazing! That is bursting with flavors!! I love everything about this salad!
Erin
This was so festive and incredibly delicious! I will definitely make this again!
Amanda
This salad is perfect! I love the red onion, blueberries, and feta together.
Beti
The perfect salad for spring! I am so excited to try it! Thank you! 🙂
katerina
Oh boy! This was terrific! I had this salad for lunch and I loved it.