This salad is IT, y’all. I could eat this every single day, and lately I have been doing just that. I call this “A Perfect Fall Salad,” because really it is. I’m not exaggerating or stretching any truths here. And while I do think it shows up best and brightest during the fall months when there are amazing varieties of great apples available (Honeycrisp! Honeycrisp!), I actually makes this beauty year-round. It’s just so, so delicious.

Table of Contents

Stop by this page to peruse our collection of salad recipes, and read on to get the deets on this one. Or, simply jump ahead to the recipe itself and get cooking. Or, “preparing,” I should say. There is no cooking involved here. Easy. Delicious. Simple. This salad has so many charms …

Tips and Tricks for salad mastery

Season your salads! I’ve talked about this here before, and I suppose it bears repeating. But salads should be treated the same as anything else you plan to eat. That is to say, they should be seasoned. A light sprinkling of salt and pepper, and anything else that seems fitting (herbs, spicy chili flakes, etc.), goes a long way in bringing together the flavors you’ve taken care to combine. Just know this – do not season your salads in advance. The salt will draw out moisture from things and sort of mess with the textures. We don’t want that. So, just lightly season right before serving. This is especially nice when you’re serving a salad with dressing on the side. People should be given the choice of how much they want their salads dressed, yes? But the seasoning should be left up to the cook. You go right ahead and sprinkle that salad.
Don’t actually measure. Really! Okay sure, I’ve offered some ingredient amounts in my recipe today. But please know that I don’t expect you to be meticulously measuring out your sliced onion and goat cheese crumbles. Just throw things onto your plates and platters until it speaks to your soul. That, in essence, is how I do almost all of my cooking. This is a site for home cooks and what I really hope is that you will gain the confidence to trust yourself when it comes to whipping up dishes like this. You’ll get a natural feel for things, and measurements will become more like training wheels that can eventually come off. Except in baking, of course.
Honeycrisp apples for president!

This is the MKL “house salad” for fall, I suppose you could say. By that I mean, the salad that I tend to make over and over again, all of the time. It is the most delicious, simple combination of things that goes with absolutely any entree.

I also enjoy this for lunch, and it’s great with a carved roast chicken as a main course salad. The dressing is just a doctored store-bought honey mustard, but this salad is also nice with just a drizzle of good olive oil and a squeeze of lemon or a little apple cider vinegar. The ingredient amounts here are just approximate – use how much you like!

What you’ll need to make this Autumnal Salad

This particular combination of things just absolutely hits for me – it’s SO delicious and I think it all just comes down to the balancing act at play. The apples bring the juicy sweetness (especially if you splurge for the Honeycrisp). The onion brings a spicy punch (plus the colors!). The goat cheese adds a very lovely creamy tang. The smoked almonds absolutely tie the whole thing together. they are the linchpin, without which this salad would not be nearly as addictive or special.

Alternatives to the Honeycrisp Apple

Jazz

Sweetango

Pink Lady

Empire

INGREDIENTS

4 or 5 cups of spring mix

3 or 4 cups baby arugula (amounts don’t need to be exact)

½ cup crumbled goat cheese (or more, to taste)

⅓ cup thinly shaved red onion

½ large Honeycrisp apple, thinly sliced

Handful of chopped smoked almonds

⅔ cup store-bought honey mustard dressing

¼ cup olive oil or (any salad oil you like)

1 to 2 teaspoons apple cider vinegar

1 teaspoon Sriracha (optional)

¼ to ½ teaspoon cinnamon

Salt and pepper, to taste

How to make my favorite fall salad

Okay, it really doesn’t get a whole lot easier than this. Just scatter the ingredients on a big platter and call it good, guys. No cooking. No faffing about. Just simple salad prep the way it outta be. Here’s the actual step-by-step 9all two steps of it).

DIRECTIONS

Arrange the spring mix and arugula on a big platter (or you can divide the ingredients among individual plates/portions). Scatter the sliced red onion, crumbled goat cheese, sliced apples, and smoked almonds over the greens.

For the dressing, whisk (or blend) together the honey mustard, oil, vinegar, Sriracha, cinnamon, and some salt and pepper to taste.