Filled with flavor and texture, this delicious easy salad has creamy brie, crunchy apple, dried cranberries, honey roasted almonds and a zesty shallot vinaigrette. While it can be enjoyed all year round, it's such a great side salad for any special occasion or the holidays.

This is a picture of a plate filled with the salad with brie, apple, cranberries and almonds.

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Why You'll Love This Recipe

It's absolutely delicious! This salad has a lot of flavors and textures complimenting each other. It's crunchy, creamy, sweet, zesty. The shallot vinaigrette is my signature dressing, I make it for many salads like my hearts of palm salad, prosciutto melon caprese salad, and my grilled chicken salad with goat cheese crostini and it never disappoints. So so good!
It's so easy to put together! The hardest part is chopping the shallot finely for the vinaigrette only because shallots can make you cry big tears but it's so worth it.
Perfect for any occasion, it's such a great salad to add to your holiday spreads. It'll bring some freshness, a serving of veggie and fruits. And it can be made a complete meal by adding some chicken, beans, steak or any protein of choice.

This is a close-up picture of the apple brie salad.

Key Ingredients And Variations

Mixed greens: this kind of lettuce works beautifully with this apple brie salad, but chopped romaine would be great too.
Brie: no need to remove the brie rind, it's delicious and adds texture. If you don't love brie, you can use goat cheese, mozzarella or anything you love.
Apple: honeycrisp is my favorite kind of apple in general, and it works so well for this salad because it's sweet, tart and crispy. But you can definitely use any kind you enjoy from Gala, Pink Lady to Fuji. Pears would also be delicious in this salad.
Honey roasted almonds: salads like this often use pecans or walnuts but because my son is highly allergic to those, I tried honey roasted almonds instead, and they're amazing in this salad. Substitute nuts of choice it you wish, roasted, candied or both.
Dried cranberries: they add that little extra to complete this salad. If you don't like them, raisins or other dried fruits would work too.
Shallot vinaigrette: made with oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, chopped shallots, this salad dressing is incredibly delicious. It's tangy, super flavorful, and balances this salad extremely well. There's no exact replacement for this one, but a champagne vinaigrette or balsamic vinaigrette would work too.

This is a picture of all the ingredients used to make this salad.

Steps To Make This Salad With Brie And Apple

Get the lettuce cleaned if it needs to be washed and prepped.

This is a picture of a cup with the shallot vinaigrette.

Put the vinaigrette together: chop the shallot and mix with the other ingredients.

This is a picture of honey roasted almonds roughly chopped.

Roughly chop the almonds carefully.

Chop the brie in bite size pieces.

This is a picture of mixed greens with salt and pepper.

Place the greens in a bowl or plate and sprinkle salt and pepper.

This is a picture of apples being sliced.

Slice the apples after removing the core.

This is a picture of apples in a bowl of salt water.

Optional: place the sliced apples in a bowl of cold salted water. This helps keeping the apples from browning.

More Delicious Salads To Try

Tips And Frequently Asked Questions

Salt your greens! Adding a pinch of salt and pepper to the lettuce before assembling the salad is a must! I learned this from Teri at No Crumbs Left years ago and have never forgotten it since!
Place the apples in the fridge a few hours before hand if you wish, so they're cold when you add them to the salad.
If you plan on making this salad in advance, I recommend getting all the ingredients ready (apples last) but assembling the salad right before eating. The apples slices will brown if they sit out, it doesn't affect the taste but if you want to avoid it, cut the apples right before serving, or add the slices to a bowl filled with cold water and a large pinch of salt for about 10 minutes. Then rinse them quickly and dry them with paper towels. It'll help keeping the apples from browning.
Keep the brie in the fridge or add it to the freezer for 10 minutes before slicing to keep it firm, it'll make it a lot easier and less messy to chop than if softer at room temperature.
This salad is best eaten right away once the dressing is added. Keep the dressing aside until ready to serve so the lettuce doesn't wilt.

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This is a square picture of a plate with this salad recipe.

Easy Salad with Brie Apple and Shallot Vinaigrette

Priscilla Lawrence

5 from 4 votes

Print Recipe Pin Recipe Rate Recipe

Prep Time 15

Assemble Time 5

Total Time 20

Course Salad, Side Dish

Cuisine American, French

Servings servings

Calories 363.5 kcal

Equipment

small bowl
whisk
cutting board
sharp knife
large bowl or plate
medium bowl optional
paper towels optional

Ingredients

8 cups mixed greens or more
salt to taste
black pepper to taste
⅓ cup dried cranberries reduced sugar or regular
⅓ cup honey roasted almonds or nuts of choice
2 apples honeycrisp or of choice, 2 small or 1 large
4 ounces Brie

For the Shallot Vinaigrette

¼ cup avocado oil or light olive oil
3 tablespoons white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar
1 teaspoon Dijon mustard heaping
2 tablespoons finely chopped shallot
¼ teaspoon garlic powder
pinch salt
pinch black pepper

Instructions

Put the vinaigrette together by whisking avocado oil, white wine vinegar, Dijon mustard, garlic powder, finely chopped shallot, a pinch of salt and pepper, then set aside.
Roughly chopped the almonds carefully.
Place the mixed greens in a large bowl or plate, then sprinkle some salt and pepper. Then add the cranberries and almonds.
Slice the brie in bite size pieces.
Slice the apples into thin slices (ideally wait until right before serving or see optional step below)
Optional step to keep apples from browning: if you want to get the apples ready in advance and don't want them to brown, place the slices into a bowl filled with cold water and a large pinch of salt, and let sit for 10 minutes. Then quickly rinse the apples and place them on paper towels to dry them completely.
Finally assemble the rest of the salad by adding the brie and apples, add the dressing, toss together and serve right away. Enjoy!

Notes

Honey roasted almonds: you can use any nuts you'd like from pecans to candied walnuts, up to your preference.

*The nutritional values shown in this recipe are approximate for one suggested serving size using the ingredients listed but not including any optional items and may vary per actual preferred portion sizes.

Nutrition

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Picture of Priscilla Lawrence owner of Sprinkled with Balance.

About Priscilla Lawrence

Hi there, I'm Priscilla Lawrence! Welcome to Sprinkled With Balance where I share elevated and approachable nutrient-rich recipes that aren't overly restrictive, complicated or boring! Based in California but born and raised in France, I'm a mom of two, former certified nutritionist, recipe developer, and food photographer.

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Salad with Brie, Apple and Shallot Vinaigrette

Why You'll Love This Recipe

Key Ingredients And Variations

Steps To Make This Salad With Brie And Apple

More Delicious Salads To Try

Tips And Frequently Asked Questions