Name: Christmas Wreath Salad
Prep time: 10 min
Total time: 10 min
Ingredients: 3 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil; 2 tablespoons red wine vinegar; 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard; 1 garlic clove (grated); ¼ teaspoon salt; ¼ teaspoon black pepper; 6 cups kale; ½ cup cherry tomatoes; ½ cup green olives; Red onion (sliced); 2 tablespoons crumbled feta cheese

Make a Festive Christmas Wreath Salad!

While a kale salad doesn’t usually end up on the festive list, this Christmas salad is actually great for the holidays because of how it’s assembled! It’s filled with hearty kale, which makes up the “greens” in the wreath, cherry tomatoes and green olives for the ornaments, red onion as ribbons, and feta as snow! It looks super cute, tastes delicious and it’s the kind of salad that doesn’t get wilty the next day or if it’s prepared hours in advance.

Christmas Wreath Ingredients

Ingredients for recipe: kale, red onion, cherry tomatoes, garlic, dijon mustard, salt and pepper, red wine vinegar, crumbled feta, green olives, and olive oil.

Dressing ingredients: Extra-virgin olive oil, red wine vinegar or any vinegar, dijon mustard, garlic, salt and pepper. You an also add a small amount of honey or maple syrup to balance the acidity and mustard flavor if you’d like.

Kale: Wash it well, then remove the tough stems. You can try another green like spinach, arugula, or another deep green lettuce. (While you could use a lighter green, Christmas wreaths are usually made with evergreen branches or holly, which are darker!)

Cherry tomatoes: Grape tomatoes are also fine.

Green olives: Make sure you buy pitted olives!

Red onion: While onion can be quite pungent, slicing it thin will help.

Crumbled feta cheese: I add just a bit to the salad, but you can set aside some extra in a bowl so guests can add more to their plates if they’d like.

How to Make Christmas Wreath

**Step 1:** Add all of the dressing ingredients to a large mixing bowl.

**Step 2:** Whisk everything together until the dressing is emulsified (i.e., the oil is fully combined with the vinegar and mustard).

**Step 3:** Reserve most of the dressing in a small bowl. Add the kale to the remaining dressing in the mixing bowl and massage.

**Step 4:** Work the kale with your hands, squeezing and rubbing until it softens and the flavor mellows. (Learn more here: Massaged Kale Salad.)

Dressed kale added to platter with dressing in the center. — **Step 5:** Set the bowl of dressing in the center of a larger salad bowl. Arrange the kale leaves around the dressing.

**Step 6:** Add the tomatoes and olives on top of the kale.

**Step 7:** Scatter the sliced red onions onto the salad.

**Step 8:** Finish by sprinkling the crumbled feta over the Christmas wreath salad.

Recipe Variations

Switch up the add-ins. Fresh or roasted red bell pepper, kalamata olives, sun-dried tomatoes—there are so many options for making this Christmas wreath salad your own!

Use a store-bought dressing. If you’re in a time crunch, you can swap in your favorite bottled salad dressing for the red wine vinaigrette. I recommend something light and savory over a dressing that’s creamy and/or sweet.

Go from savory to sweet. Maybe you do want a salad that leans more sweet? Add dried cranberries, candied pecans, and pepitas, along with the feta and red onions. You can use the red wine vinaigrette or swap in a dressing with a touch of honey or maple syrup for sweetness.

Recipe Tips

Massage the kale well. This helps infuse the dressing flavor into the kale, mellowing its earthy flavor, and it also helps to break down the tough leaves, making them more tender to eat.

Skip massaging the leaves if you don’t use kale. If you want to use other greens like spinach or romaine lettuce, I recommend not dressing or massaging the salad, but instead serving all of the dressing in a bowl in the middle of the wreath.

Soak the onions in cold water. I don’t recommend skipping the onions because they add a nice contrast to the other salad ingredients. That said, if you want to cut some of their bite, you can soak them in ice water while you prepare the other ingredients, which makes them less pungent.

Get creative with the assembly. If you don’t have larger and smaller bowls that will work for assembling this Christmas wreath salad, you can use a chip-and-dip tray.

Serving Ideas

Tongs lifting up a serving of the Christmas wreath salad.

This salad was really easy to make, the salad dressing tasted phenomenal!

Christmas Wreath Salad

Make a Festive Christmas Wreath Salad!

Christmas Wreath Ingredients

How to Make Christmas Wreath