Cranberry Winter Fruit Salad with Honey Orange Dressing

Don’t let winter pass you by without making this festive Cranberry Winter Fruit Salad recipe that is full of fresh cranberries, apples, oranges, and pomegranate seeds. You will love the sweet and tart flavors and the honey orange dressing adds some extra goodness to this colorful crunchy salad. 

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When we think of salads it always seems to be one with leafy greens and veggies, but don’t forget fruit salads for a colorful and tasty alternative, especially during the cold winter months when some vitamin C is so welcome.

What better way to eat a bowl of fruit than with all the freshest seasonal produce.

Why I love this salad

(don’t get me going!)

• It’s very healthy
• It’s adaptable to other fruits
• You can add nuts if you like
• If you follow One Hot Oven you will know at some point I will put ginger in this salad.
• It very crunchy
• You can eat this salad by itself or use it as a topping on yogurt, pancakes, or waffles. And, this salad pairs deliciously with poultry and pork.
• Using fresh fruit is always the best and this guide on What Fruits are In Season details some of the best winter fruits that are perfect for this salad.
• This makes a delicious holiday fruit salad, perfect for Thanksgiving and Christmas.
• Because of the oranges in this salad, they keep the apples from turning brown, so your salad looks fresh all the time.
• The honey-orange dressing is simple to make and adds just the right amount of sweetness to this salad.
• This makes the perfect make-ahead salad. Make a day or two before you want to serve and it will still be tasty.
• Want to only make half the salad, that’s easy to do, just reduce the amounts of fruits, and put on half the dressing.

The beauty of winter fruits ~ apples, cranberries, oranges, pomegranates

As with any salad, there is some prep required so grab a knife, cutting board, a food chopper, and an apron.

Seriously, how many of you actually wear an apron?  Just curious.  But, seriously,  how many of you have seeded a pomegranate only to realize you get covered in red juice? That would be me, and I’m not going to say how many times I thought I would be super careful while seeding my pomegranate only to have red splotches on my shirt.  I finally got an apron and wear it.

How to seed a pomegranate

If you are not familiar with pomegranates there are several varieties, but in the U.S we pretty much have the large red pomegranates called “Wonderful” that are available from October through December. These large heavy fruits are filled with sweet-tart juicy seeds called arils.

There are several different ways to seed a pomegranate but this is how I like to do it. Just letting you know your fingers will get stained from the juice! And put that apron on.

• Get a heavy cutting board out and a sharp knife.  The rind on pomegranates is kind of leathery and can be a bit hard to cut through.
• Cut the fruit into quarters just through the red skin part, then over a bowl pry the quarters apart with your fingers to catch the juice and any seeds.
• Take one quarter at a time and holding it over a bowl remove any of the thin white membranes, then while holding each end of the quarter, push the skin part inward with your thumb to loosen the seeds. The seeds will start falling into the bowl. Since the seeds are tightly packed you may need to use your fingers to gently loosen them.
• Continue with all the other quarters. When done you will need to pick through the bowl for pieces of membrane, peel, and the tiny white hulls that are sometimes attached to the seeds.
• Optionally, you can fill the bowl with water which will make the debris pieces float to the top.  This is not my favorite method because you won’t have any pomegranate juice that accumulated in the bowl.
• You want to be gentle with the seeds since they are filled with juice.

pomegranates are one of the prettiest fruits

Cutting oranges

• Peel the oranges and pull off as much of the pith that you can.
• Gently pull apart each section of the orange and clean off any strings and remaining pith.
• Using a serrated knife, cut the orange sections into bite-sized pieces, it’s about four or five cuts per slice.  Using a serrated knife to cut citrus allows you to saw through the fruit without crushing it too much.
• If you know how to supreme citrus I would definitely cut the orange that way to show off all the inside of the orange. Supreming is a method of cutting the membranes from each citrus. It takes a little bit of time, but it does make a pretty presentation of the fruit.

How to chop cranberries

Fresh cranberries are available usually from November through January. If you like cranberries, buy extra bags and freeze them so you have these berries throughout the year.

• For this salad, you need chopped cranberries and the easiest way to do this is with a food processor or a mini food chopper.
• Just add the cranberries to the food processor and pulse about three or four times until the cranberries are chopped to your liking.
• Watch how long you have the food processor going because you can turn the cranberries into really fine pieces. It is best to chop the cranberries in several batches to control how big or little the pieces are.

How to dice apples

• To cut the apples for this salad you have two options, either hand-cut them or place them in the food processor and chop them. I prefer hand cutting them because I like the apple diced.
• Place the apple on a cutting board and cut it into quarters. With a paring knife, cut out the seeds.
• Now cut the apple quarter into about four slices, depending on the size of the apple.
• Stack up a couple of slices and cut lengthwise to create two large strips and then dice the strips.

Putting the fruit salad together

Step 1. Wash and dry all the fruit. You will need a large mixing bowl so you can toss the fruit and dressing together. See the above instructions for preparing the fruits.

Step 2. Seed the pomegranate then add the seeds to the mixing bowl.

Step 3. Peel and dice two oranges and add to the mixing bowl.

Step 4.  Chop one bag of cranberries in a food processor or food chopper. Add all the cranberries to the bowl.

Step 5. Quarter and slice two apples then cut into bite-sized pieces and add to the bowl.

Step 6. If using, chop the mint and add to the mixing bowl.  You can also just use the mint for a garnish on top of the fruit salad.

Step 7. Toss all the fruits together in the bowl.

Step 7. Juice one orange and add the honey to the juice. Mix thoroughly, then pour over the salad to combine.

Step 8. Keep the salad in the refrigerator until ready to serve.  This will keep for several days.

Make this salad your way

The ingredients are just a guideline you can use, but there are so many options to make this salad just the way you like it.

• You can reduce any amount of fruits or add more fruit. If I only have half a bag of cranberries, that works just as well as adding three apples.
• Since pears are also a winter fruit they would make a delicious addition. I would use a bosc pear to maintain the crunch.
• If you are eating this salad immediately, try adding pecans for a delicious nutty flavor. However, if you are storing the salad the nuts will become soggy.
• This is not a sweet salad. If it is too tart for you, try adding a little more honey, or maybe a tablespoon of sugar.
• If you are a Mandarin lover add a few of those along with the oranges or instead of the oranges.
• Mint – I love the bright flavor it adds to this salad and the little bits of green, but this is optional, so you decide.

More One Hot Oven cranberry recipes

For more cranberry inspiration try my favorite breakfast, Creamy Spiced Apple Cranberry Oatmeal.

This Spiced Orange Cranberry Bread is the most popular recipe on the blog, is it full of cranberries and fresh oranges and is simple to make and bake plus it freezes well, so make a double batch of bread batter, bake one and freeze the other one for later.

Bake a loaf of Pumpkin Cranberry Bread and have a slice for breakfast or an afternoon treat.  It’s delicious anytime you want to taste some delicious warming spices. This is a holiday favorite bread to bake.

Add cranberries to this Pear, Asiago Cheese, and Pistachio Puff Pastry Pinwheels that are easy to make for a delicious bite-sized appetizer perfect for parties, movie nights, and game day. Pair these pinwheels with a salad and a glass of wine for a lite meal. 

This simple and rustic Apple-Cranberry Galette is like a free-form apple pie with pops of fresh tart red cranberries.

Eating fruit salad in winter

This salad has such great flavor and is loaded with so many healthy fruits and is perfect to eat all day long.  It’s such a refreshing salad and a perfect pick-me-up during the long winter months. Enjoy!

Using these tools makes salad prep easy

A food processor makes chopping the cranberries for this salad extra easy and will come in handy for lots of other fruits and veggies. I like to keep this mini-food proecessor handy, it’s easy to get in and out of the cupboard and chops easily.

Chopping these fruits will require a couple of knives, but for the citrus, I recommend using a serrated paring knife to cut, or actually saw, through the delicate sections of oranges so the fruit doesn’t get crushed.

Just a reminder about that apron we talked about earlier. If you gotta wear one make sure it does the job and has some cuteness to it.

No matter what time of the day we eat this salad, there is always a cup of tea nearby. One of my favorite teas to pair with this salad is  Ahmad Cardamom Chai Tea. The delicate spices of the tea provide a wonderful contrast to the tartness of the salad, the aroma is relaxing and the flavor is light enough to enjoy at any time of the day.

Make sure to pin this recipe for later.  It’s a great salad for any time and looks especially festive for the holidays.

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About Jere’

From learning to cook on a farm in Indiana to culinary school in California, my passion for food is never-ending.  Turning on my oven to bake something for friends and family is my happy place, and I am glad to be here at One Hot Oven sharing both sweet and savory recipes with all my baking friends.