Fall salads are a totally different animal from summer ones, at least the way I make them. Forget the sad lettuce and watery tomatoes, it’s roasted squash and crisp apples and pears, beets, shaved Brussels sprouts, toasted nuts and something salty like feta, all tossed in a dressing with a bit of maple or cider in it. These are the 10 I keep making from September to Thanksgiving, for lunch, as a side, or as the thing I bring when somebody says “can you do a salad?”, starting with a harvest salad I could honestly eat every day.
Looks like a lot of people are thinking ahead to the holidays, because Pinterest searches for “fall salad recipes” in the US went up around 600% over the past month and climbed another 50% in just the last week of September 2026.
My 10 favorite fall salads
1. Fall harvest salad with maple dijon dressing
This is the one with the full recipe below, warm roasted butternut squash, apple slices, candied pecans, feta and cranberries piled on greens. Every time I bring it somewhere, someone texts me for the recipe the next day.
2. Shaved Brussels sprouts salad
I slice a pound of Brussels sprouts really thin (the slicing disc on a food processor makes it so fast) and toss them with lemon juice, olive oil, shaved Parmesan, toasted almonds and a little drizzle of honey. The cool thing is it actually gets better after sitting in the dressing for an hour, unlike lettuce, so it’s great to make ahead.
3. Beets and goat cheese
Beets get wrapped in foil and roasted at 400°F for an hour-ish, then I peel and slice them (pink fingers for a day, totally worth it) and lay them on arugula with goat cheese and walnuts. There’s also my Greek beet salad when I want a different spin.
4. Pear, blue cheese and walnuts
This is the fancy-looking one that takes five minutes. Pears that give a little when you press them, blue cheese, toasted walnuts, mixed greens, balsamic. When my mom comes over I swap the blue cheese for Gorgonzola or sharp white cheddar because she can’t stand the stuff, and it’s still great.
5. Wild rice with cranberries
Wild rice, cranberries, celery, green onion, pecans and a big handful of parsley in orange vinaigrette, and you serve it at room temp, so on Thanksgiving when every burner and the oven are taken this one just sits on the counter being useful.
6. Kale and apple salad
Fun fact that sounds fake: kale tastes way better after a massage. I sprinkle a little salt and a spoon of dressing on it and squeeze it with my hands for maybe a minute, till it goes soft and super green, and then pile on thin apple slices, sharp cheddar and toasted pumpkin seeds with lots of the maple dijon over the top.
7. Delicata squash with farro
No peeling with delicata, the skin is soft enough to eat, and after years of hacking at butternuts that alone makes me happy. Roasted rings, still warm, tossed with arugula and farro and pomegranate seeds and feta. If you haven’t cooked one before my delicata squash guide walks you through it.
8. Autumn chicken salad
Ok so my lunch obsession lately: regular chicken salad with diced apple, dried cranberries and chopped pecans mixed in, piled on greens or shoved into a croissant if I’m being fancy. The base is just my high-protein chicken salad with the fruit and nuts thrown in.
9. Fall grain salad
I’m a big fan of chewy grains like farro or bulgur or freekeh for salads because they soak up dressing and don’t go soggy by lunchtime, so I’ll toss a pot of them with whatever roasted vegetables are hanging around, herbs, nuts and something sharp and vinegary. If you want a starting point my Cypriot grain salad is a good one.
10. Fall pasta salad
Whatever little pasta I’ve got, plus roasted squash, spinach, cranberries, feta and cider vinaigrette, it survives in a lunch box till noon no problem, and my picky eight year old eats it, so I’m calling that a win.
RECIPE
Fall Harvest Salad with Maple Dijon Dressing
Ingredients
- 4 cups butternut squash peeled, 3/4 inch cubes (about 1 1/2 lb)
- 1 tbsp olive oil
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- 1/4 tsp ground cinnamon
- 1/3 cup extra virgin olive oil
- 3 tbsp apple cider vinegar
- 1 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 1 tbsp Dijon mustard
- 1 small shallot minced
- 1/2 tsp kosher salt
- black pepper to taste
- 6 cups mixed greens or a mix of baby kale and arugula
- 1 large crisp apple thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup candied pecans
- 1/2 cup crumbled feta or goat cheese
- 1/3 cup dried cranberries
- 1/4 cup pomegranate seeds optional
Method
- Heat the oven to 425°F (220°C). Toss the squash with the oil, salt and cinnamon and spread on a baking sheet in one layer.
- Roast 22 to 25 minutes, flipping once, until tender and browned at the edges. Let cool for 10 minutes.
- Shake all the dressing ingredients in a jar until creamy.
- If using kale, massage it with 1 tablespoon of the dressing for 1 minute to soften it.
- Add the greens, apple and slightly warm squash to a large bowl and toss with about half the dressing.
- Top with pecans, feta, cranberries and pomegranate seeds. Serve with the remaining dressing on the side.
Notes
Private Notes
Tried this recipe?
Let us know how it was!Warm squash, trust me
Leftover squash from the fridge is ok in a pinch but warm squash wins every time, it slumps the greens a little and drinks up the dressing so you end up with something that feels like dinner, I just let it sit around ten minutes after it comes out so it doesn’t cook the leaves.
And roast it hot, 425°F, spread out in one layer with some space between the pieces. Crowd the pan and the squash steams and goes soggy, give it room and it browns at the edges and gets all sweet and caramelized.
That maple dijon dressing
This dressing is pretty much the backbone of every fall salad I make. It’s roughly two parts oil to one part vinegar, plus a spoon each of maple syrup and Dijon. The mustard is what makes it creamy without any cream, it helps the oil and vinegar stay together instead of separating in the jar.
I use it on almost every salad on this list, as a marinade for chicken, and drizzled over roasted veggies. If you want something creamier, my honey mustard dressing with cream is really good on the chicken or kale salads.
Build your own fall salad
| Part | Good fall choices |
|---|---|
| Base | Baby kale, arugula, spinach, shaved Brussels sprouts, wild rice, farro |
| Roasted | Butternut or delicata squash, sweet potato, beets, carrots |
| Fruit | Apples, pears, pomegranate, dried cranberries, figs |
| Crunch | Candied pecans, walnuts, almonds, pumpkin seeds |
| Cheese | Feta, goat cheese, blue cheese, shaved Parmesan, sharp cheddar |
Pick one or two things from each row and boom, you’ve got your own fall salad. For a sweet crunchy topping, my sugar and spice pecans are basically made for this.
Questions people ask me about fall salads
So what goes in a fall salad?
For me it’s pretty much always something roasted like squash or sweet potato, apples or pears, a handful of toasted nuts, a salty cheese and a dressing with maple or honey or cider vinegar in it, all on kale or arugula because regular lettuce just collapses under all that.
Can I prep it ahead for Thanksgiving?
Oh for sure, that’s how I survive the day. Up to three days early I roast the veggies, toast the nuts and shake up the dressing, then I slice the fruit and throw it all together right before dinner, and the Brussels sprout or kale ones can even get dressed an hour early since they don’t wilt.
My apples keep going brown, any tricks?
Slice them last thing, or give the slices a five minute swim in lightly salted water and rinse them off, or just toss them right into the dressing as soon as they’re cut.
What dressing goes best with fall salads?
The maple dijon is my favorite by a mile, but an apple cider vinaigrette, a balsamic or a creamy honey mustard all taste great with fall stuff too.
One last tip: please toast your nuts. Five minutes in a dry pan over medium heat and plain old pecans or walnuts suddenly become the best thing in the bowl, and your kitchen will smell incredible.
