Apple Breakfast Salad with Orange Almond Sauce

Sweet apples, chewy raisins, hearty nuts, and crunchy pomegranate seeds all covered in a luscious and creamy sauce. This delicious apple salad takes breakfast from “ho-hum” to “oh yum!”

Bonus points: it’s a cinch to make!

How to Make this Yummy Apple Breakfast Salad

Apples

In this apple salad, I used a variety of apples, including Jonagolds, Fuji, and an unnamed variety from an old apple tree that belongs to my sweet friend Heather. (Thank you, Heather.) I like using a combination of apple varieties because it gives the salad a fuller flavor, but this apple salad isn’t picky – feel free to whatever variety you like, and I’m confident it will be delicious!

Be sure to cut your apples dices small enough so each piece gets well-coated with the luscious orange almond sauce and so the apple flavor is perfectly balanced with the crunchy nuts and chewy raisins.

Nuts

Fresh, raw nuts provide crunch and richness to this apple salad. My favorite nuts to use in this salad are pecans, but walnuts are also delicious.

Raisins

I originally included raisins in this recipe for the purpose of sweetness and flavor, but it’s the chewiness that they bring to the salad that I really love.

Granola

To help this apple salad reach stick-with-you breakfast status, I sprinkle some sugar-free or low-sugar granola over top. The whole grains in the granola provide good nourishment for your day.

I suggest using maple granola or apple granola as their flavor blends wonderfully with this Apple Breakfast Salad.

How to serve this Apple Breakfast Salad

My favorite way to serve this delicious Apple Breakfast Salad is alongside some warm oatmeal or brown rice. It’s also great with whole-grain toast.

Apple Breakfast Salad with Orange Almond Sauce is best served fresh; but it will keep reasonably well in the refrigerator for a couple hours, especially if you choose an apple variety that isn’t quick to oxidize.

Make Ahead Breakfast?

If you’re like me, the last thing you feel like doing in the morning is cooking breakfast. (In our house, if can’t be put together in less than 5 morning minutes, you won’t see it on the breakfast table.) Thankfully, you can prepare the sauce for this Apple Breakfast Salad ahead of time. You can also combine the granola, nuts, and raisins, and have the pomegranate seeds ready.

Then, in the morning, all you have to do is cut up the apple and mix it all together.

Can you cut this recipe in half?

If you want to cut the recipe in half, you can do so, but most blenders aren’t able to blend very small amounts smoothly, so I recommend making the entire recipe of the sauce. In other words, use only half of the other ingredients, but prepare the entire recipe of the sauce.

What do you do with the other half recipe of sauce?

It keeps for about 4 days in the refrigerator and can be used in a number of ways. It’s delicious on top of oatmeal, makes a good dip for pears, tastes great over hot brown rice (as a breakfast dish), can be used as a spread for toast, and, of course, is delicious over another apple breakfast salad later in the week.

Apple Nutrition

Apples and Weight Loss

Apples are one of the best weight loss foods.  Add an apple to your breakfast and you’ll increase fiber intake by 5 grams!  That apple will also help you feel fuller longer and help fight fat!

Smaller waist – Bigger brain

Not only are apples helpful for weight loss, but they boost brain power as well.

Research shows that apples contain many healthy-brain nutrients that can help improve memory and concentration, prevent the decline of neurotransmitters, boost overall cognitive performance, and protect against Alzheimer’s disease.

Many of these brain-boosting nutrients are found in the skin of the apple, so it’s a smart choice to eat apples with the peel intact.

Cholesterol-lowering breakfast

The consumption of apples is also associated with lower cholesterol levels and lower rates of cardiovascular disease (probably due to the fruit’s antioxidant, fiber, and pectin content). Replace your eggs and bacon breakfast with this apple salad and whole grain toast and your heart will be doing the happy dance . . . and thanking you for many years to come.

Breakfast is the most important meal of the day, so you might as well make it delicious. 😉