This Champagne Vinaigrette Salad Recipe is bright and incredibly fresh. The salad dressing has a great balance of oranges and champagne vinegar. It's also easy and quick to make.
The salad is full of crunchy toasted almonds, juicy fresh fruit, tangy red onions, crispy lettuce, and soft feta cheese. The vinaigrette makes any green salad come alive and makes a delicious chicken, pork, and fish marinade.
Chef Donald Young of the Napa Valley Wine Train graciously gave me the components of this vinaigrette. I played around with the quantities to recreate a balanced and lip-smacking dressing. Try it on this salad or a simple green salad.
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This vinaigrette reminds me of a chimichurri. Even though chimichurri isn't a salad dressing, it still has that wake-me-up holy-WOW-that-was-good flavor. This champagne vinaigrette salad recipe pairs incredibly well with quiche, fried green tomatoes, or chicken piccata.
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Simple Champagne Vinaigrette Salad Ingredients
Champagne Vinaigrette Dressing Ingredients
- Oranges
- Orange Juice
- Shallots
- Champagne Vinegar
- Extra virgin olive oil
- Honey
- Mustard
- Coarse Kosher salt
Salad Ingredients
This was not the salad we had on the train. The vinaigrette was so good, the salad could have been made with cardboard cutouts of lettuce and it would have been amazing. This salad is fresh and light to let the vinaigrette shine through.
- Butterhead lettuce
- Redleaf lettuce
- Red onion
- Bing or Rainier cherries
- Slivered almonds, toasted
- Feta or goat cheese
- Additional fruit (like mandarin orange), optional
See the recipe card for quantities.
Champagne Vinaigrette Salad Recipe Instructions
Step 1: Zest and juice the orange into a bender. Then add the rest of the vinaigrette ingredients into a blender and emulsify the dressing on high until smooth. Taste and adjust the seasoning as needed.
Step 2: Strain the vinaigrette through a cheesecloth or fine mesh strainer.
Step 3: Wash and dry both types of lettuce and put them in a large bowl.
Step 4: Slice the red onion thinly, place the slices in a small bowl, and cover with light coat of vinaigrette. Let marinate for at least 10 minutes.
Step 5: Drizzle a small amount of the homemade vinaigrette over the lettuce mixture and toss to coat. Add more if needed.
Step 6: Layer marinated onions, halved pitted cherries, cheese, and toasted slivered almonds over lettuce. Enjoy!
Hints: If you want to add some extra flavor to your salad, try using large flake salt like Maldon. You can add some fresh black pepper or a squeeze of lemon juice to the lettuce. Do this before adding the toppings.
If you can't find toasted slivered almonds, they're easy to make yourself. Roast them in a dry skillet over medium heat until they turn a light golden brown. Watch them carefully because they can burn quickly. I like to use this non-toxic PTFE & PFOA Free Caraway 8" pan to roast my nuts.
To make pitting cherries a breeze, I use this cherry pitter. I don't normally recommend one hit wonders (a tool that only does one job), but this one is worth it.
Substitutions
There are several substitutions you can use for both the champagne vinaigrette recipe and salad.
- Lettuce - instead of butterhead and red leaf lettuce, you can use romaine lettuce or spinach
- Vinegar - if you don't have Champagne vinegar in your pantry, use Asian rice vinegar, white wine vinegar, or red wine vinegar instead.
- Citrus - replace the zest and just of the oranges with the zest and juice of tangerines, lemons, or limes.
- Fruit - substitute the cherries for strawberries, blueberries, or orange sections.
- Nuts - instead of using almonds, try pecans, pistachios, or walnuts.
- Honey - Short on honey? Use a tablespoon of sugar or maple syrup
- Salt - No coarse Kosher salt? Try ยฝ teaspoon of fine kosher salt or 1 teaspoon sea salt. Do NOT use iodized table salt. It's too salty.
Variations
Here are some ideas to inspire you to make your own creative twist on this salad and homemade salad dressing recipe.
- Spicy - add a pinch of red pepper flakes or cayenne pepper while making the vinaigrette.
- Herbaceous - add big leaves of mint, parsley, cilantro, dill, or time to your salad.
- Fruit Forward - add double or triple the amount of a variety of fruits like raspberries, blueberries, mango, blackberries,
If you like this recipe, check out my fruit kale salad! It's packed with flavorful antioxidant foods like cranberries, blueberries, red bell peppers, and kale.
Equipment
The three most important tools for this champagne vinaigrette salad recipe are a blender, a microplane, and a strainer. You can technically make everything without them but it won't come together as fast, have the same depth of flavor, or be as smooth.
Using a blender makes this salad dressing come together easily and fast. The microplane (or zester) allows you to zest the orange and reach a deep citrus flavor without bitterness. And last but not least, the strainer (or cheesecloth) gives the vinaigrette a smooth silky texture that's too luscious to resist.
Storage
Store the vinaigrette in a mason jar or squeeze bottle for up to 7 days.
Storing vinaigrette in a squeeze bottle is easy and convenient.
The salad should be eaten immediately. It does not store well once the vinaigrette is on the lettuce.
Top Tip
Don't forget the Dijon mustard when making the vinaigrette. Not only does it add flavor but it also acts as a binding agent that keeps the emulsion from breaking.
Frequently Asked Question (FAQ)
No. Champagne vinaigrette is made with Champagne vinegar, not real Champagne. Champagne vinegar does not contain alcohol.
Related
Looking for other recipes like this? Try these:
Pairing
These are my favorite dishes to serve with [this recipe]:
Champagne Vinaigrette Salad Recipe
The star of this Champagne Vinaigrette Salad Recipe is a vibrant, citrusy salad dressing that's easy and quick to make. It makes any green salad come alive and makes a delicious chicken, pork, and fish marinade.
Ingredients
Champagne Vinaigrette
- 1 orange juiced, about ยผ cup
- 1 tablespoon orange zest about the zest of 1 orange
- 3 tablespoons shallot minced
- 3 tablespoons Champagne vinegar
- ยผ cup extra virgin olive oil
- 1 tablespoon honey
- 1 tablespoon dijon mustard
- ยฝ teaspoon kosher salt NOT iodine salt
Salad
- 1 head butter crunch lettuce
- ยฝ head red leaf lettuce
- ยผ red onion thinly sliced
- 1 ยฝ cups bing or rainier cherries pitted and halved
- โ cup slivered almonds toasted
- ยฝ cup feta or goat cheese crumbled
Instructions
Champagne Vinaigrette
-
Zest the orange over the blender.
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Cut the orange in half and juice it into the blender.
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Add the rest of the vinaigrette ingredients into the blender: shallots, champagne vinegar, olive oil, honey, dijon mustard, and salt.
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Blend on high for 2 minutes or until smooth.
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Taste the vinaigrette and adjust seasoning as needed. Pulse to combine. Taste.
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Strain with a cheese cloth or fine mesh strainer into a small pitcher. Set aside.
Salad
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In a small bowl, marinate the sliced red onions with 2 tablespoons of the vinaigrette. Set aside.
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Wash and gently dry both the butter crunch and red leaf lettuce. Cut or tear into smaller pieces. Put lettuce into a large salad bowl.
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Drizzle lettuce with ยผ of the vinaigrette. Toss to coat the leaves. Add more if desired.
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Sprinkle red onions, cherries, almonds, and cheese over the lettuce.
Recipe Notes
To toast almonds: place slivered almonds in a dry skillet over medium heat.ย Watch carefully as the nuts start to turn a light golden brown.ย Stir or flip occasionally.ย Remove from pan as soon as they are lightly golden.ย ย
Be careful!ย They can burn quickly.
