If you need a simple and delicious salad to enjoy for dinner, try this arugula apple salad. With only 5 simple ingredients, this salad packs in a ton of sweet and savory flavor – along with lots of nutrients.
How to make apple arugula salad
This salad can be made in a ton of different ways. My personal preference is the recipe below, which includes these simple ingredients:
- Baby arugula
- Apples
- Honey roasted pecans
- Blue cheese crumbles
- Dressing (I like Panera Fuji Apple Salad Dressing)
All you need to do is mix up your ingredients and enjoy!
Of course, there are also tons of customizations you can make for this recipe:
- Use a different type of nut, like walnuts or almonds.
- Use a different type of cheese, like feta or sharp cheddar.
- Mix up the greens, using spinach or mixed greens instead of arugula.
- Switch out the apple for another fruit, like sliced pears.
- Add in additional dried fruit, like dried cranberries or golden raisins.
Recipe tips
- Arugula is generally sold in 5-ounce bags or clamshell containers. You’ll use about one and a half of these for this recipe, which gives you quite a bit of arugula each to make for a meal-sized salad. If you want a smaller side salad, cut down to one 5-ounce package of arugula and use smaller portions of the other ingredients too.
- If meal prepping this recipe, I recommend keeping the blue cheese crumbles and the dressing in separate containers (or in separate sections of a bento style box) until you’re ready to eat it. This will preserve the texture of all the ingredients best. You’ll also want to add a little lemon juice or lemon-lime soda to your apples to prevent browning.
Nutrition benefits
This salad contains several ingredients that are ideal for active women to eat:
- Apples – While the old adage “an apple a day keeps the doctor away” may not be completely accurate, there are a lot of nutrients in apples that are great for your body. They’ve got fiber to support a healthy digestive system, and healthy carbs that can help fuel your workouts. Some studies have shown that people who eat apples regularly have a lower risk of diseases like diabetes or stroke (1, 2, 3). And another study indicated the polyphenols in apples may help endurance performance (4)!
- Arugula – This peppery tasting green is great for bulking up a meal for minimal calories, helping you feel full and manage your weight. But there may be other benefits too! One study suggests that arugula has a phytochemical that may play a role in cancer prevention (5).
- Blue Cheese – One of my favorite things about blue cheese is that it packs in a ton of flavor. This means you can use a small amount (less than a lot of other cheeses) to still achieve that richness you want in a balanced salad. Blue cheese also contains calcium to help with bone health.
- Pecans – This (along with other nuts) provide healthy fats that are satisfying and help keep you full longer. Pecans also contain a wide array of phytonutrients that can benefit health. And one study found that eating pecans helped improve cardiometabolic risk factors, like insulin levels (6).
I hope you enjoy this simple, easy-to-make salad! If you get a chance to try it, be sure to leave a comment or recipe rating below. (PS – Looking for more salad recipes? Try this peach arugula spinach salad or this steak salad with butternut squash and blue cheese.)
This arugula apple salad recipe is both delicious and nutritious - plus, you only need 5 ingredients!
- 7.5 ounces baby arugula
- 2 apples, sliced
- 3/4 cup honey roasted pecans
- 1/2 cup blue cheese crumbles
- 6 tbsp dressing of your choice (I love the Panera Fuji Apple Salad Dressing on this!)
- Combine all ingredients in a large bowl and serve.
Nutrition analysis (approximate per serving): 397 calories, 28 g fat, 5 g saturated fat, 300 mg sodium, 31.5 g carbohydrate, 5.5 g fiber, 22 g sugar, 8 g protein, Vitamin A: 29%, Vitamin C: 20%, Calcium: 19%, Iron: 10%
Share: What’s your favorite kind of salad? If you tried this arugula apple salad, what did you think?
Chrissy Carroll
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