Fruit and Nut Salad Recipe with Candied Pecans

Name: Can't Get Enough Fruit and Nut Salad
Prep time: 15 min
Cook time: 5 min
Total time: 20 min
Yield: 6 servings
Cuisine: American
Ingredients: 1 head lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces; 1 pear, chopped; 1 can mandarin oranges, drained; 1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese; 1/2 cup candied pecans (recipe below); 1/2 cup chopped pecans; 1/2 tablespoon butter; 1 tablespoon maple syrup; 1/4 cup raw honey; 1/4 cup cider vinegar; 1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil; 2 teaspoons mustard; 1/2 teaspoon sea salt; 1/4 red onion; 2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Fruit and nut salad with torn lettuce, chopped pear, mandarin oranges, feta cheese and candied pecans

This salad comes with a story.

When my son got married, he gave me two weeks to pull the dinner together.

It was right at the start of the 2020 shutdowns, and none of us knew whether waiting would mean not being able to gather at all. So the wedding happened fast . . . and so did the food.

I needed something that would feed a crowd, look beautiful going down the table, and come together in a hurry. This is what I landed on. It was the first bowl to empty.

Life hands all of us sudden changes. I keep a short list of recipes for those weeks, the ones I can make without a plan and still feel good about putting in front of people.

I hope you love the Can't Get Enough Fruit and Nut Salad as much as we do.

Dr. Michelle

What Makes This Salad Work

Every bite has four things going on at once. Crisp lettuce for the base. Soft, sweet fruit from the pear and the mandarin oranges. Salty, tangy feta. And a candied pecan for crunch.

The dressing ties it together with sweet honey and sharp cider vinegar. That balance of sweet, salty and acidic is the reason people go back for a second helping of a salad, which does not happen often.

It is also why the salad asks so little of you. Good ingredients, arranged well, doing what they already do.

The Candied Pecans Are Worth Five Minutes

You can absolutely use plain pecans here. But the candied ones are what make guests ask for the recipe, and they take one pan and about five minutes.

Butter and maple syrup, that is the whole coating. No refined sugar, nothing you cannot pronounce.

Two things matter. Keep the heat at medium and stir constantly, because maple syrup goes from golden to burnt in a hurry. And spread the pecans out on a plate the moment they come off the heat, in a single layer, so they cool separate instead of setting into one candy brick.

A Poppyseed Dressing Without the Bottle

Store-bought poppyseed dressing is often built on corn syrup and soybean oil. This version is raw honey, cider vinegar, extra virgin olive oil, a little mustard, sea salt and a piece of red onion.

The mustard is doing real work in there. It helps the oil and the vinegar hold together so the dressing stays smooth instead of splitting in the jar.

Blend everything except the poppy seeds. Then add the seeds and pulse just a few times. Blend them from the start and they break apart, and you lose the little pop that gives the dressing its name.

Ways To Make It Yours

The pear can become a crisp apple, or sliced strawberries in the spring. If you have fresh mandarins or clementines on hand, segment those instead of opening a can.

Goat cheese works in place of feta. Leave the cheese out entirely and the salad still holds up, since the pecans and the dressing carry plenty of flavor on their own.

Walnuts or sliced almonds candy exactly the same way as pecans. And if you want this to be dinner rather than a side, add sliced grilled chicken and call it done.

Getting It On the Table

Dress the salad right before it goes out. Lettuce with dressing on it does not wait well, and neither do the pecans, which soften once they get wet.

If you are prepping ahead, do all three parts separately. Tear the lettuce and refrigerate it, make the pecans and leave them at room temperature, and keep the dressing in a jar in the fridge. Assembly then takes two minutes.

Looking for another salad in the same spirit? This and That Salad is the one I make when the crisper drawer is full of odds and ends.

From Dr. Michelle's Kitchen

Can't Get Enough Fruit and Nut Salad

By Dr. Michelle Jorgensen

A quick green salad with chopped pear, mandarin oranges and feta, topped with maple candied pecans and tossed with a homemade poppyseed dressing.

Servings6 servings

Prep Time15 min

Cook Time5 min

Total Time20 min

CuisineAmerican

CategorySide Dish

Ingredients

Salad

1 head lettuce, torn into bite-sized pieces
1 pear, chopped
1 can mandarin oranges, drained
1/2 cup crumbled feta cheese
1/2 cup candied pecans (recipe below)

Candied Pecans

1/2 cup chopped pecans
1/2 tablespoon butter
1 tablespoon maple syrup

Poppyseed Dressing

1/4 cup raw honey
1/4 cup cider vinegar
1/2 cup extra virgin olive oil
2 teaspoons mustard
1/2 teaspoon sea salt
1/4 red onion
2 teaspoons poppy seeds

Directions

Candied Pecans

Melt the butter in a frying pan over medium heat.
Add the chopped pecans and the maple syrup. Saute, stirring constantly, until the pecans are light brown and glossy. Watch them closely so the maple syrup does not burn.
Spread the pecans out on a plate in a single layer and let them cool completely so they do not clump together.

Poppyseed Dressing

Add the honey, cider vinegar, olive oil, mustard, sea salt and red onion to a high-speed blender and blend until smooth.
Add the poppy seeds and pulse a few times, just enough to mix them in without breaking them up.

Assemble

Tear the lettuce into a large bowl. Add the chopped pear, the drained mandarin oranges and the feta.
Scatter the cooled candied pecans over the top and serve with the poppyseed dressing on the side.

Notes

The dressing keeps for at least a week in a covered jar in the refrigerator, so make the full batch and save what is left for your next salad. Shake or stir it before pouring, since the honey and the oil separate as it sits.

If you are making the salad ahead, keep the lettuce, the pecans and the dressing separate until you are ready to serve. The lettuce stays crisp and the pecans stay crunchy that way.

Walnuts or sliced almonds candy exactly the same way as the pecans. Goat cheese works in place of the feta, or leave the cheese out entirely.

Keep a Few Fast Recipes Ready

The reason this salad exists is that I did not have time to plan. That happens more often than any of us would like.

Having three or four recipes you can make without thinking is what keeps real food on the table during the weeks that get away from you. This is one of mine, and it has never once looked like I was in a hurry.

If you want a starting set, The 30 Minute Meal Formula is the free guide I put together for exactly those weeks. It is how I think about dinner when there is no plan.