8 Salads Featuring Florida Citrus That You’ve Got to Try

Do you love salad? My family does, to my great satisfaction. The key, I discovered, is to serve it in a big, wide, shallow bowl (so all the “goodies” don’t fall to the bottom) and to include plenty of delicious extras, like nuts, cheese, meat, hard boiled eggs, croutons, and definitely fresh fruit.

One of the most delicious things you can add to salads to make them especially appealing is fruit. As is often said, we “eat with the eyes,” and the bright colors of fruit really contrast beautifully with greens. Adding fruit also ups the nutritional impact of a salad, of course, pumping up the vitamin and fiber content. In this post, we’re going to concentrate on the many absolutely wonderful salads that feature fresh citrus.

Citrus-based salads are great to have in your repertoire in winter when other fresh fruit tend to be unavailable, or are often are looking a bit sad. They can brighten up your holiday table or just enliven an average January dinner with their fresh flavors. But they can also take you into spring and cool off the early days of summer. (Of course, a main dish salad is especially wonderful when the weather is hot and you really don’t feel like standing over a hot stove!)

Try one of these delicious, beautiful, and nutritious salads featuring oranges, grapefruit, or tangerines today, and enjoy the bright lift and sweet, juicy flavor these fresh Florida citrus bring to your table.

Main Dish Florida Citrus Salads

1. It may be a bit of a stretch to call this Honey Grilled Chicken with Citrus Salad a salad, since there are no greens—but it certainly looks delicious, and it does feature chicken in an orange juice-rosemary marinade, grilled and served up with a fruit salad made of a variety of fresh oranges, grapefruits, dates, and pistachios. Yum!

2. Here’s a salad that definitely eats like a meal—this Spicy Shrimp and Citrus Salad showcases sautéed spicy shrimp and Florida orange and grapefruit segments atop fresh greens, with a grapefruit vinaigrette. I can imagine this being great with some fresh baguette and creamy butter.

3. Need another easy, but delicious main-dish salad? This Chicken Orange Kale Salad takes a short cut by using rotisserie chicken, combined with raspberries, feta, red onions, pecans, sliced fresh oranges, and kale massaged with a vinaigrette.

4. Looking for a hearty vegetarian main dish salad? How about this Lentil Citrus Salad with Goat Cheese? Lentils in a simple dressing are topped with roasted beets, sliced fresh oranges, crumbled goat cheese, and chopped parsley for a unique dish that packs a lot of nutritional value.

Side Dish Florida Citrus Salads

5. Here’s a unique and healthy winter salad featuring fresh supremed ruby red grapefruit on a bed of arugula, dressed with olive oil and balsamic vinegar, with shaved Parmesan on top. This would be really bright and refreshing in the doldrums of winter.

6. This Crisp Fennel and Apple Salad with Tangerine Vinaigrette is crunchy, light, and beautiful with bright tangerine sections contrasting with butter lettuce and light green fennel.

7. Or, for a heartier grain-based, but gluten-free side that would be great at the winter holidays, try this wild rice salad that features pecans and a medley of dried cranberries, dried apricots, and tangerine sections. This one can be made ahead.

8. I bet kids would love this pretty and sweet spinach and fruit salad topped with orange sections, raspberries, blackberries, and cheese that is served with a balsamic vinaigrette.


Looking for more delicious salads featuring fresh Florida oranges, tangerines, and grapefruit? Check out the Eating Clean with Citrus board on the Florida Fruit Shipper Pinterest page