This Arugula Salad is colorful and delicious! Arugula is tossed with a quick dressing and served with beets, oranges, pecans, and feta cheese.
It’s great as a fresh side dish and is perfect topped with grilled chicken or salmon. This looks like a fancy restaurant menu item but it’s still a quick recipe for any day of the week.
A Flavorful Side or Main Dish
- This recipe only needs a handful of ingredients, plus roasted beets!
- The Honey Dijon vinaigrette is flavorful & fresh and only takes a few minutes to make.
- Ingredients can be prepared days ahead of time and quickly tossed at dinner time.
- Easy enough for a weekday lunch, but fancy enough to serve at a dinner party!
- The flavors pair well with grilled chicken, shrimp, or salmon.
Ingredients
ARUGULA (also known as rocket) is a peppery tasting super green (it’s loaded with antioxidants). Any fresh greens from your fridge would be a tasty addition, I often add a handful of spinach if I have it.
BEETS Beets are always in season and affordable. If you don’t want to cook beets, buy packaged or canned (but make sure they’re not pickled).
Kitchen Tip: Don’t throw away those beet greens. Use them to make sauteed beet greens or add them into soup!
OTHER ADDITIONS Oranges bring a tangy sweetness and feta adds a little salty, but creamy tone and texture.
DRESSING The honey Dijon dressing pulls all the ingredients together so every bite is fresh, sweet, and savory! If desired, substitute a lemon vinaigrette or a balsamic-based dressing.
NO BEETS!? NO PROBLEM! If you don’t have beets, add another roasted veggie in their place. Sweet potatoes or winter squash are great options.
We love pairing a roasted root vegetable with the peppery bite of arugula.
Variations
Choose contrasting ingredients that still complement the basic recipe and dressing.
- We like adding a combination of sliced granny smith apples with crumbled goat cheese or feta. Or go for diced avocado with bleu cheese crumbles.
- Thinly sliced rings from a bulb of fennel pairs perfectly with mandarin orange segments.
- We also like an optional topping of sunflower seeds, pepitas, or toasted walnuts or pistachios.
How to Make Beet & Arugula Salad
- Bake the beets according to the recipe below. Once cooked, rub the skins off and cut beets into pieces. Cool completely.
- Segment the oranges (if you’ve never segmented oranges, find details here).
- Combine arugula and onions in a large salad bowl & toss with dressing. Garnish with remaining ingredients & serve immediately.
TIME SAVING TIP
Beets take a while to roast and cool.
To save time, purchase pre-cooked beets which are usually found in the produce area near the beets or near the fresh salad mixes. Beets can also be prepared a few days in advance and refrigerated.
What Goes with This Arugula Salad?
If serving arugula beet salad as an entrée, we like to top it with a mild protein like Crispy Air Fryer Shrimp or chilled Glazed Salmon.
Serving it as a side salad, it pairs well with other strong entrées like Grilled Lamb Chops, Blackened Shrimp, or a decadent Balsamic Pork Loin.
Fresh & Fruity Salads
- Blackened Salmon Salad – light & healthy
- Pistachio Strawberry Salad
- Orange & Fennel Salad – with zesty orange dressing
- Easy Watermelon Salad (with feta)
- Strawberry Spinach Salad – so fresh & flavorful
- Winter Salad – with Maple Dijon Vinaigrette
- Waldorf Salad
- Easy Arugula Salad – perfect for lunch
- Pomegranate Salad
Did you love this Arugula Salad? Be sure to leave a rating and a comment below!
Beet & Arugula Salad
Ingredients
- 1 pound beets or 4 small cooked beets
- 1 tablespoon olive oil
- salt and black pepper
Salad
- 6 cups arugula or mixed greens
- 2 navel oranges sectioned
- 1 cup toasted pecans or candied pecans
- ½ red onion thinly sliced
- ½ cup crumbled feta cheese or goat cheese
Dressing
- 3 tablespoons olive oil
- 2 tablespoons white wine vinegar
- 1 teaspoon honey
- 1 teaspoon Dijon mustard
- salt and pepper to taste
Instructions
Cook & Cool Beets
- Preheat oven to 400°F.
- Wash beets and trim the ends (if they are large), cut beets in half. Rub beets with olive oil and season with salt and pepper.
- Place beets in a baking dish and seal with foil. Bake until tender, about 1 hour. Cool beets 5-10 minutes and then rub the skins off with a paper towel.
Prepare Salad
- Section the oranges by cutting the skin off. Use a small paring knife to cut each piece of orange away from the white pith.
- Whisk dressing ingredients and set aside.
- Combine cooled beets, oranges, onions, and arugula in a large bowl. Toss with dressing and garnish with remaining ingredients
Notes
Nutrition Information
Nutrition information provided is an estimate and will vary based on cooking methods and brands of ingredients used.
Course Dinner, Lunch, Salad, Side Dish
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made it and loved it
I am so happy to hear you loved this salad!
I can’t rate this recipe, since I have not yet made it – BUT I definately will. My family loves beets, & I make several terrific recipes which use these garden gems. Unfortunately, Beets seem to be unappreciated by most folks, perhaps b/c they require a long cooking time B-4 you can (actually) proceed with whichever recipe you’d use them in. It’s easy to plan ahead, & to cook-off the beets earlier in the day, OR on the day B-4. The health benefits of beets are seriously worth anything which you’d consider an inconvenience to prepare them. Anyone can readily check out the health benefits of beets on the Internet. My 4 kiddoes, all under the age of 8, love Yellow Beets, since they’re especially sweet & delicious.