This Citrus Salad is an exquisite blend of vibrant citrus fruits, creamy avocado, and crunchy pistachios, all brought together by a subtly sweet orange dressing. It’s more than just a salad; it’s a complete show-stopper, frequently hailed as one of the most delicious and refreshing dishes you’ll ever taste. Its stunning presentation and bright flavors make it an unforgettable addition to any meal.

Looking for more ways to enjoy seasonal citrus? Try our Citrus Quinoa Salad for a hearty main, or enhance your dinner with Cuban Mojo Chicken, perfectly complemented by a fresh citrus avocado salsa.

Elevate Your Meal with a Refreshing Citrus Salad

Say goodbye to ordinary salads! This unique citrus salad stands apart from traditional greens-based dishes by focusing entirely on the vibrant flavors and textures of fresh fruit and complementary ingredients. Instead of lettuce, it features a delightful layering of sweet and tangy citrus fruits, optional tender roasted beets, and rich, creamy avocado. The result is an absolutely gorgeous dish, boasting an incredible mix of textures and fresh, light flavors that make it perfect for brightening up any spring or summer gathering. Its vivid colors alone are enough to capture attention, making it a true feast for the eyes as well as the palate.

Year after year, this citrus salad remains a beloved fixture on my Easter menu, consistently ranking as one of the most popular dishes. Its refreshing qualities and stunning appeal make it my go-to choice whenever I need to bring a standout salad during the transitional months between winter and spring. It’s a guaranteed crowd-pleaser that guests always rave about, perfect for brunch, lunch, or as a vibrant side at dinner.

The beauty of this salad lies in its versatility and dependence on seasonal produce. Citrus fruits are typically at their peak from December through May, offering a wide array of options to choose from. While I usually select four different types of citrus to maximize flavor and color variety, feel free to customize your selection based on what looks freshest and most appealing at your local grocery store or farmer’s market. Any combination of sweet and tangy oranges, grapefruits, or tangerines will work wonderfully.

Crafting the Perfect Citrus Salad Dressing

The dressing for this salad is designed to be subtly sweet, enhancing and harmonizing all the natural flavors of the citrus fruits without overpowering them. It’s a simple yet incredibly effective vinaigrette that binds the ingredients together beautifully. Here are some essential tips for making the best dressing:

• Choose High-Quality Olive Oil: The foundation of any great dressing is its oil. Investing in a good quality extra-virgin olive oil will significantly elevate the overall taste of your dressing. Its fruity notes will complement the citrus beautifully, creating a richer and more balanced flavor profile.
• Marinate Warm Beets with Dressing: If you’re including roasted beets, a smart trick is to toss them with a portion of the dressing while they are still warm, immediately after roasting. The warmth helps the beets absorb the dressing’s flavors more effectively, ensuring they are perfectly seasoned and even more delicious when added to the salad.
• Utilize the Right Tools for Citrus Prep: Precision makes a difference when working with citrus. A small, fine grater (like this one) is invaluable for zesting oranges, allowing you to capture just the aromatic outer peel without including the bitter white pith. For efficient juicing, a dedicated citrus juicer will make squeezing oranges much easier and yield more juice, ensuring you get every drop of flavor.
• Add Dressing Gradually for Best Coverage: Unlike leafy greens, citrus slices don’t absorb dressing as readily, which means it can accumulate at the bottom of the serving dish. To prevent this and ensure every bite is perfectly coated, start by drizzling about half of the prepared dressing over the assembled salad. Then, add more as needed, tasting as you go, until you reach your desired level of flavor. This method helps maintain the salad’s fresh texture and prevents it from becoming overly saturated.

The Star of the Show: Selecting Your Citrus

This salad truly shines with a diverse array of citrus fruits, offering a spectrum of colors, textures, and flavor notes. While you can certainly choose based on what’s freshest and most available, aiming for at least three different types will create a more dynamic and visually appealing dish. Each variety brings its own unique character to the salad:

• Cara Cara Oranges: These beauties are often preferred for their exceptionally sweet flavor and lower acidity compared to traditional navel oranges. They offer a delightful cranberry-like tang and a subtle hint of rose. Externally, they resemble standard navels, but slice them open to reveal a stunning, rich pink, seedless flesh that adds a beautiful hue to the salad.
• Blood Oranges: Instantly recognizable by their dramatic deep red, almost purple flesh, blood oranges deliver a distinct flavor profile. They often carry notes of raspberry or even a subtle floral aroma, providing a sophisticated twist and a gorgeous deep color contrast in your salad.
• Tangelos: A hybrid of tangerines and grapefruit, tangelos are renowned for being exceptionally juicy and easy to peel. Their flavor is bright and tangy, reminiscent of a tangerine but with a slight grapefruit bitterness, adding a refreshing zing to the mix.
• Navel Oranges: As a classic choice, navel oranges contribute a dependable sweetness and a pleasantly mild flavor to the salad. They are less tangy than some other varieties, providing a wonderful balance and a familiar, juicy texture that everyone loves.

Beyond these primary recommendations, many other citrus fruits also integrate beautifully into this salad. Consider adding Valencia oranges for their sweetness, grapefruits for a zesty, slightly bitter contrast, or small, easy-to-segment clementines and mandarins for bursts of convenience and mild flavor. Don’t hesitate to mix and match to discover your favorite combinations!

Essential Supporting Cast: Other Citrus Salad Ingredients

While citrus is the star, the accompanying ingredients play crucial roles in adding complexity, texture, and creaminess to this outstanding salad:

• Avocado: The creamy texture of ripe avocado is indispensable here, providing a luxurious counterpoint to the bright citrus. To ensure your avocado is perfectly ripe, gently press near where the stem was – if it yields slightly like the tip of your nose, it’s ready to be sliced into your salad. Ripe avocados contribute healthy fats and a satisfying richness.
• Fresh Herbs (Basil or Mint): Fresh herbs elevate the salad’s aroma and flavor profile. Basil offers a slightly sweet and peppery, savory note that pairs beautifully with citrus and cheese. Alternatively, fresh mint provides a bright, cool, and invigorating flavor, adding another layer of freshness. Choose one or a mix of both for an extra fragrant touch.
• Cheese (Goat Cheese or Feta Cheese): A sprinkling of cheese introduces a delightful tang and creamy texture. Crumbled goat cheese is an exceptional choice, as its earthy notes wonderfully complement the sweetness of beets and the zest of citrus, while also pairing well with creamy avocado. Feta cheese is another fantastic option, offering a saltier, briny flavor that contrasts beautifully with the fruit. For a vegan-friendly salad, simply omit the cheese.
• Nuts (Pistachios or Almonds): The addition of nuts provides a crucial element of crunch and a satisfying nutty flavor. Dry roasted and lightly salted pistachios are highly recommended for their vibrant green color and rich taste, requiring no extra effort. Sliced almonds also make a great alternative, offering a delicate crunch and buttery flavor. These nuts contribute healthy fats and protein, adding to the salad’s substance.
• Beets (Optional but Recommended): Roasted beets bring an earthy sweetness and a beautiful deep color to the salad, creating an intriguing depth of flavor and texture. If you’re short on time, convenience is key: you can buy pre-roasted and peeled beets, or even use well-drained canned beets for a quicker preparation. If roasting from scratch, both golden and red beets work wonderfully, offering different visual appeals.

Simple Steps to Your Perfect Citrus Salad

Creating this stunning citrus salad is straightforward, involving a few key steps to ensure maximum freshness and flavor:

1. Prepare the Dressing: Begin by zesting and juicing one orange to yield approximately 1/2 teaspoon of zest and 2 tablespoons of juice. In a small jar with a tight-fitting lid, combine the orange zest and juice with Dijon-style mustard, honey, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, and pepper. Secure the lid and shake vigorously until all ingredients are well combined. If the honey is thick, a quick stir will help it integrate. Chill the dressing in the refrigerator until you’re ready to assemble the salad, allowing the flavors to meld beautifully.
2. Optional: Roast Beets: If including beets, preheat your oven to 400°F (200°C). Trim the beet tops, leaving a small portion of the roots intact. Wrap each beet securely in aluminum foil and place them on a baking sheet. Roast for 50–60 minutes, or until they are fork-tender (a knife should easily pierce through with minimal resistance). Allow them to cool slightly, then peel off the skins (they should slide off easily). Slice the cooked beets into thin rounds or wedges, then toss them with a tablespoon or two of the prepared dressing while still warm for optimal flavor absorption. Refrigerate until ready to use.
3. Prepare Citrus & Avocados: Carefully slice the top and bottom ends off each citrus fruit. Using a very sharp knife, cut around the fruit to remove all the peel and the bitter white pith, working from top to bottom. Once peeled, thinly slice the citrus fruits into 1/2-inch rounds or half-moons, removing any visible seeds. Alternatively, you can hand-peel the citrus and separate it into segments if slicing feels too challenging. Next, peel, pit, and slice the ripe avocados into similar-sized pieces.
4. Assemble the Salad: On a large serving plate or platter, artfully arrange the sliced citrus, roasted beets (if using), and avocado. This layered presentation is visually appealing and allows guests to appreciate each ingredient.
5. Garnish and Dress: Finally, add your desired garnishes: crumble the goat cheese or feta over the top, sprinkle with coarsely chopped pistachios, and scatter fresh basil leaves. Give the chilled dressing another good shake and drizzle it over the salad to taste. It’s important to only dress and add avocado to the portions you plan to eat immediately, as dressed citrus can become soggy, and avocado will begin to brown quickly. Store any remaining dressing and undressed salad components separately in the refrigerator.

Mastering Citrus Preparation for a Flawless Salad

Properly preparing citrus is key to enjoying this salad without any bitter notes from the pith or membranes. Here’s a detailed guide to getting your citrus perfectly ready:

1. Use a very sharp knife. A sharp knife is your best friend here, making the process significantly easier, safer, and yielding cleaner cuts. A dull knife will only tear the fruit and make peeling difficult.
2. Cut the top and bottom off the fruit. Place the citrus on a cutting board. Slice off about 1/4 inch from both the stem and blossom ends, creating flat surfaces. This allows the fruit to stand steadily on your cutting board.
3. Slice around the fruit to remove the peel and the white pith. Stand the fruit upright on one of its flat ends. Starting from the top, carefully slice downwards, following the curve of the fruit, to remove the peel and the thick white pith just beneath it. Aim to remove as little of the fruit flesh as possible while ensuring all white pith is gone.
4. Keep going until all the peel and white part are off. Rotate the fruit as you go, continuing to slice away the peel and pith until the entire fruit is exposed, revealing its juicy segments.
5. Thinly cut the fruit into slices or half-slices. Once peeled, lay the citrus on its side and slice it horizontally into rounds about 1/2-inch thick. If the slices are too large for your preference, you can cut them into half-moons. Ensure to remove any visible seeds as you slice.

If precise slicing proves difficult or frustrating, don’t despair! You can simply peel the citrus with your hands, break it into individual segments, and add these pieces directly to the salad. The flavor will be just as wonderful, even if the presentation is slightly less formal.

Citrus Salad Recipe

By
Chelsea Lords

This Citrus Salad is a total show-stopper! Juicy citrus, creamy avocado, and crunchy pistachios come together with a sweet orange dressing for a refreshing, flavor-packed bite.

Prep Time: 35 minutes

Total Time: 35 minutes

Servings: 4 as a side

User Rating: 4.88 from 8 votes

Video

Watch a video tutorial for making this delicious Citrus Salad:

Click here to watch the Citrus Salad video

This video demonstrates combining a medley of oranges, oven-roasted beets, creamy avocado, tangy cheese, and crunchy roasted pistachios, all brought together by a sweet citrus vinaigrette.

Equipment

• Wide-mouth Mason Jar (for dressing)
• Sharp Knife
• Cutting Board
• Small grater (for zest)
• Citrus Juicer
• Baking sheet & aluminum foil (if roasting beets)

Ingredients

Dressing

• 1 orange, zested and juiced (yields ~1/2 tsp zest and 2 tbsp juice)
• 1 teaspoon Dijon-style mustard
• 2 tablespoons honey
• 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
• 2 tablespoons olive oil
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/16 teaspoon pepper

Salad

• 2 navel oranges or 4 clementines
• 2 tangerines or tangelos or clementines
• 2 cara cara oranges
• 2 blood oranges
• 1 cup avocado (from 2 small avocados)
• 1/3 cup coarsely chopped pistachios
• 1/3 cup crumbled goat cheese or feta, optional
• 1 handful fresh basil, optional

Optional: Roasted Beets

• 4 beets (golden, red, or variety; or use 1 can drained and thinly sliced)

Instructions

1. Prepare Dressing: Zest and juice one orange to get about 1/2 teaspoon zest and 2 tablespoons juice. Combine all dressing ingredients (orange zest, orange juice, Dijon mustard, honey, apple cider vinegar, olive oil, salt, pepper) in a jar. Seal the jar tightly and shake well to combine. If honey is thick, stir until blended. Refrigerate the dressing until ready to use.
2. Optional Beets: Preheat oven to 400°F (200°C). Trim beet tops (leaving roots). Wrap beets individually in aluminum foil and roast on a baking pan for 50–60 minutes, or until tender (a knife should easily pierce through). Let cool slightly, then peel and thinly slice. Toss the warm sliced beets with some of the prepared dressing and refrigerate.
3. Prep Citrus & Avocados: Using a very sharp knife, cut off the top and bottom ends of each citrus fruit. Stand each fruit upright and carefully slice around it from top to bottom to remove all the peel and bitter white pith. Thinly slice the peeled citrus into 1/2-inch rounds, removing any seeds. Alternatively, you can peel by hand and segment. Peel, pit, and slice your ripe avocados.
4. Assemble: On a large plate or platter, artfully layer the prepared citrus slices, roasted beets (if using), and avocado slices.
5. Garnish & Serve: Add crumbled goat cheese or feta (if desired), pistachios, and fresh basil leaves. Shake the chilled dressing again and drizzle it over the salad to taste (you may not need all of it). To maintain freshness and prevent browning, only dress and add avocado to the portions that will be eaten immediately. Otherwise, store components separately and assemble right before enjoying.

Recipe Notes

Note 1: When handling beets, it’s highly recommended to peel and slice them on parchment paper to prevent staining your cutting board. Wearing gloves will also help avoid staining your hands!

Storage: Citrus Salad is best enjoyed immediately after preparation. The dressing can cause the pistachios to soften over time, and the avocado slices will begin to oxidize and brown quickly if left exposed or dressed.

Nutrition Facts

Serving Size: 1 serving

• Calories: 295 kcal
• Carbohydrates: 39g
• Protein: 4.7g
• Fat: 15.9g
• Cholesterol: 1.4mg
• Sodium: 86.1mg
• Fiber: 8.4g
• Sugar: 25.1g

Nutrition information is automatically calculated and should only be used as an approximation.