This Fall Salad with Apples and Pecans is perfect for autumn! Made with greens, apples, pears, craisins, pecans and blue cheese and then topped with a honey mustard dressing this salad recipe is perfect for a holiday or just a hearty lunch! Mix it up by changing out the blue cheese for feta or the pecans for walnuts, this salad is super versatile. I love this salad with a Gala, Fuji, or Joanathan apples, but you can just use what you have. This salad would be great next to this creamy tomato bisque soup with this three ingredient beer bread on the side.
The other day, I think it was while we were apple picking with the kids, it occurred to me how excited I am for the holdidays. Like giddy excited. Every year I love watching my kids do all the fall and winter holiday thing – picking out their Halloween costumes, seeing family for Thanksgiving, opening all the presents . . . and then it’s over and then I kind of forget. And then in the fall we go apple picking or walk through a corn maze and it’s like it all comes back to me in a rush and I feel like a 6 year old on Christmas morning.
Every year we go apple picking at the same place and this was the first year it felt like we had three KIDS with us instead of one kid and a baby or two kids and a baby. There were no diaper bags, there was no carrying a kiddo in a back pack, it was just us and our three kids walking through the orchard. It was weird, but also kind of amazing. And my family totally spoiled me. They were handing me all the apples to make sure they were ones that I like to eat or that would be good for baking. Gavin looked at the list and then pointed to some trees and said, “Oooo, we need to get those ones! They are supposed to be good on salads! Mom loves salads!” Is that not the sweetest?
Confession: I don’t even remember which ones they were.
HOW TO MAKE AN APPLE PECAN FALL SALAD
So this is a spin on a salad I had while I was hanging with Iowa Corn (more on that next week, they are awesome!). It was made with greens, fresh corn, apples, pears, blue cheese, pecans, crasins, and this amazing light dressing. I couldn’t find fresh corn when I was making this one, but the other flavors still held it together perfectly! This salad made an awesome lunch for me (my family knows me so well) or it would be a great side for a holiday get together, especially because it comes together so fast.
And it screams cozy fall.
Looking for more recipes perfect for fall?
MORE GREAT RECIPES FOR FALL
- I’m drooling over these Apple Cider Cupcakes and Brown Sugar Cinnamon Buttercream Frosting.
- I could totally snuggle up with a bowl of this Smokey Sweet Potato Apple Soup.
- These Turkey Stuffed Sweet Potatoes make the perfect fall meal!
Apple Pecan Fall Salad
Ingredients
- For Salad
- 6 cups mixed greens
- 1 apple I love Jonathan, Fuji, or Gala for this salad, diced
- 1 pear diced
- 1/3 cup craisins
- 1/2 cup blue cheese
- 1/2 cup salted pecans
- For Dressing
- 1/4 cup fresh lime juice
- 2 TBSPs honey
- 1 tsp dijon mustard
- 1 tsp salt
- 1/2 tsp pepper
- 1/2 cup olive oil
Instructions
- In a mason jar, combine all the ingredients for the dressing and then shake to combine.
- In a large bowl, combine all of the salad ingredients. Toss to combine. Serve with the dressing on the side.
Notes
Nutrition
Slow Cooker Spiked Apple Cider
Crock Pot Black Bean Chorizo Soup
Ashley @ Wishes & Dishes says
Just printed the recipe for this salad! Can’t wait to try it! Beautiful photos.
Melissa Griffiths says
Summer ain’t got nothin’ on fall salads. MY FAVORITES all in one place!
Lisa Longley says
Right?? So delicious!
Dottie says
Just took this to a Christmas party last night of 14 women and everyone loved it! Never thought they would eat the whole thing! Will probably make for the family Christmas dinner.
Lisa Longley says
This makes me so happy!
Sharon says
Hi,
I wanted to now how much salt to use….you have 1/ tsp listed, is it 1/4? 1/8? 1/2? 1 whole tsp seems like a lot for this dressing.
Thanks in advance!
Lisa Longley says
So sorry about that Sharon! It is one whole teaspoon. If that seems like too much for you, start with a half and go from there. But I do love the full teaspoon in this.
Laura says
What is the serving size for this recipe? Is it one full cup for a person or more?
DIANA PATEL says
Can I use normal processed cheese instead of blue cheese. Also can I use walnuts instead of pecans. For the competition should I pour dressing on the salad or keep it at the side in a bowl.
Lisa Longley says
Hi Diana! I love salads because swap outs and changes are so easy. Yes, use a different cheese if you don’t like bleu cheese. I think shaved parmesan or feta would be great in this. And that nut swap is super simple and easy. I’m not sure what you mean by competition, but if you are serving it, I usually leave dressing on the side and just let people know. Or you can add just enough to coat the ingredients, toss it, and leave the rest on the side.
Lynn says
Do the apples get brown? And if so do you put anything in them like lemon juice? Thanks in advance.
Lisa Longley says
You can lightly dress it before setting it out and that should help keep the apples from browning.
Rainah says
Made half batch for Thanksgiving for a small crowd when there were recalls on romaine, and hardly any lettuce looked good, so we used baby spinach. Well received, though no one fawned over it. Had some leftovers, so added Turkey for a simple supper later that evening for just myself. Loved that!!! That did not use all the leftovers, so I realized the next day that this salad keeps better than most after being tossed in the dressing. Had more spinach, made more salad. Still love it! Thank you!
Lisa Longley says
Glad to hear you guys liked it! And Romaine recalls make me so sad! I’m glad you still made this.
Lori says
Made this for lunch. Delish! I only made half the recipe and it turned out well. Love the pecans in this. I did sub in Feta for the blue cheese. Not a fan.
Lisa Longley says
So glad you liked it!