The Best Ever Grapefruit Salad

Grapefruit is not only for breakfast — this amazingly delicious grapefruit salad is made to impress! Made with simple and fresh ingredients, it is just what we need to break up some of those heavy fall meals we have all been indulging in.

Keep on reading to see just how easy it is to make this salad as well, as a homemade pomegranate dressing!

Fresh And Delicious Grapefruit Salad

I love this salad! It’s the perfect late fall early winter salad because that’s when grapefruits are at their tastiest. Actually, grapefruits peak in late December, so after all of those delicious holiday meals and treats we have been eating, it’s great to have a little bit of a healthy break. The fact that this salad takes only 10 minutes to prepare makes it even better and easier!

One of the best things about this grapefruit salad is the fact that we are using super fresh and super good ingredients! I always feel better when I know I am having a nice healthy meal — it makes me feel like I have my life together (well, somewhat!).

Grapefruits are so good for you: they are full of vitamins, nutrients, and antioxidants. Now some people love grapefruits and some, well, not so much. Grapefruit can be a bit of an acquired taste.

But with creamy and rich feta cheese, tasty red onions, and toasted walnuts, the flavors go surprisingly well together in this salad! Plus, with the pomegranate dressing, we will be adding a bit of sweetness so it goes so perfectly well.

How To Make Grapefruit Salad – Step By Step

• The first thing to make will be the pomegranate dressing. This dressing is so, so good — it has tangy lemon flavors and poppy seeds to add a bit of texture.
• In a small bowl, add in pomegranate juice (you can either make your own or use store-bought like “POM Wonderful”), Dijon mustard, honey, lemon juice, salt, pepper, sugar, poppy seeds, and olive oil.

• Using a whisk or a fork, mix it together well to combine all of the ingredients.

• The best way to store this salad dressing is in an air-tight container or in a salad dressing shaker. I love the OXO Good Grips salad dressing shaker because it keeps dressings nice and fresh since it has a wonderful air-tight seal. It also has measurements on the side, so you can make your salad dressing right inside of the shaker and do not have to dirty another dish!
• Next, it is time to prepare the salad. First, wash and dry your lettuce, I used a super fresh head of red leaf lettuce, but you could use whatever you prefer (a nice spring mix would also work well with this recipe). Once it is washed and dried place all of your lettuce into a large salad bowl.
• Cut up half of a red onion into thin slices and add that to your salad bowl with the lettuce.
• Sprinkle half of a cup of feta cheese on top. Feta cheese goes so well with this grapefruit salad because feta has more of a tangy, salty taste to it and will balance out the bitterness of the grapefruit.

• For my recipe, I like to use toasted walnuts. You can always purchase already toasted walnuts — a lot of times they will be by the salad dressings at your local grocery store. But it is usually cheaper to buy them raw and then toast them in a pan at home.
• In a dry frying pan add half of a cup of walnuts, stir them around for a few minutes until you start to see them brown up a bit. Toasting the walnuts gives them a totally different flavor and it is so worth it. When you toast walnuts, it makes them more crunchy and brings out its nutty flavor. Plus it only takes a few minutes on the stovetop.

• After you have toasted the walnuts, add them to the salad bowl.
• Time for the wonderful tasty grapefruit! We will need to cut the grapefruit into segments. If you are wondering how to cut a grapefruit, I have another article here that shows you step by step how to perfectly cut a grapefruit.
• Once you have your grapefruit cut into segments, add them to the top of your salad. That’s it! It really is that simple to have a high-end, tasty grapefruit salad made with the simplest and freshest ingredients.
• If you would like, you can just add your dressing to the salad as you serve it or toss it all together.
• The salad will keep better if you keep the dressing on the side since it will prevent the lettuce from soaking up the dressing and wilting.

Grapefruit Salad — Great As a Meal, Or a Side Dish

You can definitely eat this luxurious salad as a meal or you could make this as a nice side dish! If you wanted to bulk up this salad a bit with some more added protein, a chicken breast surely could do the trick!

Just toss a chicken breast in a zip-lock bag or in a bowl with some of your favorite Italian dressing and let it marinate for at least one hour. Then bake for 30-40 minutes in a 350-degree oven until the internal temperature of the chicken reaches 165 degrees Farenheight.

This salad would work so well as a side with chicken or fish. A beautiful roasted lemon herbed chicken with a vegetable and a healthy portion of this amazing grapefruit salad will surely impress your family or guests! It looks so fancy, but is so easy to make!

This grapefruit salad would also pair nicely with a pan-fried fish such as cod, halibut, or even tilapia. Because grapefruit is a citrus fruit and has a sour taste (just like a lemon) it pairs great with any dish that has a bit of lemon, the citrus flavor flows throughout the meal perfectly.

Healthy Eating

If you are anything like me, eating healthy isn’t always the easiest choice,. But with this grapefruit salad, you will have a delicious and healthy meal that takes only minutes to put together — even faster than sitting in the drive-through line! You can make it a meal or make it a side dish. Either way, you get amazing benefits from this quick and tasty grapefruit salad.

Want to learn more about grapefruits? Next, visit our grapefruit trees page to discover information on planting, growing, caring, cooking, and more!

Still hungry for more? Then discover our other fruit recipes to stock up your kitchen with nature’s healthy and tasty goodies!