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Citrus Salad with Chicken and Walnuts

I came home from the grocery store yesterday with a huge bag of grapefruit instead of the oranges I thought I was buying.  I do like grapefruit but at 1/2 a fruit in the morning, these babies will take a long time to disappear.

Citrus Salad with Chicken and Walnuts

I love having really special salads as a lunch time meal. Adding something extra tasty to a normal garden salad gives you a filling meal that still won’t break the calorie bank.  (Try my Greek Chopped salad, or  Whole30 California Cobb Salad for 2 other delicious and filling lunch time options.)

This Citrus salad with chicken and walnuts uses them beautifully, and I even made a dressing using the grapefruit too.

The salad is delicious and so refreshing and the dressing compliments it beautifully.  I had this for lunch and thoroughly enjoyed it.

Like most salads, it is easy to do.  Just pile on the ingredients and you are good to go.  The dressing is the hardest part of the recipe, but that’s easy too.

Grapefruit vinagrette dressing

Any greens will go but the combination that I used for this recipe worked very well:  baby spinach, red cabbage, and diced carrots.  Add in the grapefruit, chicken pieces, shredded cheese, and walnuts and you have a salad that is worthy of any high end restaurant for lunch, and you made it yourself.

Citrus Salad with Chicken and Walnuts

Plus I got rid of a few of my pesky grapefruit!

For another great tasting healthy salad, be sure to check out my Mediterranean chicken salad. The marinade recipe is used for the dressing as well!

Yield: 6

Citrus Salad with Chicken and Walnuts

Citrus Salad with Chicken and Walnuts

A tangy olive oil and vinegar dressing tops this delicious chicken, walnut and grapefruit salad.

Prep Time 5 minutes
Total Time 5 minutes

Ingredients

For the salad:

  • 3 peeled grapefruits, in segments cut in half
  • 5 cups of baby spinach leaves
  • 1 cup of red cabbage, shredded
  • 2 carrots, grated
  • 3 cups of cooked chicken, cut into chunks.
  • 1/2 cup of walnuts, in small pieces
  • 1 cup of mozzarella cheddar mixed cheese, shredded.

For the dressing:

  • 4 tbsp of freshly squeezed grapefruit juice
  • 3 tbsp of garlic wine vinegar
  • 2 tbsp of honey
  • 2 tsp of extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 tsp of dry mustard
  • 1/2 tsp of Kosher salt
  • Cracked black pepper.

Instructions

  • Combine the vinegar, grapefruit juice, honey, olive oil, mustard, salt and pepper in a small bowl. Whisk to combine and set aside.
  • Mix the baby spinach leaves, shredded red cabbage, cooked chicken, grapefruit segments, walnuts, carrots and cheese.
  • Dress with the vinaigrette and serve immediately.
  • Nutrition Information:

    Yield:

    6

    Serving Size:

    1

    Amount Per Serving: Calories: 466Total Fat: 24gSaturated Fat: 8gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 14gCholesterol: 88mgSodium: 543mgCarbohydrates: 33gFiber: 8gSugar: 17gProtein: 30g

    Nutritional information is approximate due to natural variation in ingredients and the cook-at-home nature of our meals.


     

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    Emily

    Friday 23rd of February 2018

    Why does the chicken in the photo look mostly raw? Isn't that a big salmonella risk?

    Emily

    Friday 23rd of February 2018

    Nevermind! I realize now that that is the grapefruit. Sorry about that.

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