Mandarin Orange Spinach Salad

Make this Mandarin Orange Spinach Salad with pancetta for potlucks, holidays or a nice dinner! With red onions, toasted walnuts and a refreshing orange vinaigrette, it's sweet, savory and delicious. It'll be ready in less than 20 minutes!

Meet the most impressive, showstopping salad I make. The kind that has guests exclaiming "Mmmm!" and asking for seconds.

Thankfully, this spinach salad with mandarin oranges comes together quickly. You're going to want this recipe, folks!

Best salad EVER!
Delish, making again
and already shared the recipe.

- Jamie

Salad ingredients

Spinach: Buy fresh, pre-washed baby spinach leaves that come in a box or bag. Baby spinach is sweeter and smaller than mature spinach, but you can use the latter if that's what you have. If you need a spinach substitute, use butter lettuce or romaine.

Mandarin Oranges: Sweet, juicy mandarin oranges taste delicious and are the perfect size to use in salads. But, we've used cut-up navel oranges with good results as well. Clementines or tangerines also would work!

Pancetta: Salty, browned pancetta bits provide the perfect complement to the sweet mandarin oranges. Pancetta is salt-cured pork belly, and it's considered Italian bacon.

Look for cubed pancetta at the grocery store in the refrigerated section near the deli and imported cheeses. You also can buy thick slices of pancetta from the deli and dice it yourself.

Feel free to substitute cubed prosciutto. Note, you can omit the meat for a delicious, vegan salad.

Walnuts: Chopped, toasted walnuts bring a crunchy texture and delicious, nutty flavor to this mandarin salad. You can skip them if needed or substitute pecans, cashews, or hazelnuts.

Red Onions: Crisp, raw, red onions add savory flavor. If you prefer a more subtle onion taste, you can use the green parts of scallions or green onions, which are easier to digest.

Dressing ingredients

I modeled this orange vinaigrette recipe after the Lemon Vinaigrette without Mustard I use in my Scallops Salad. It's a delicious, refreshing orange vinaigrette without added sugar.

Orange Zest: For fresh, citrus flavor, you'll need the zest from one large orange. This is my favorite zester (affiliate link).

Orange Juice: For best results, use freshly squeezed juice from half of a large orange. You'll need the orange anyway for the zest.

Vinegar: White balsamic vinegar (affiliate link) has a smooth, mild, fruity taste and works best here. You don't want to use anything darker, because it'll ruin the color of the orange dressing. If you need a substitute, go with white vinegar.

How to make mandarin orange spinach salad

See the card at the end of this post for the full recipe, but here's an overview.

Prepare the walnuts, pancetta & salad

1. Toast the chopped walnuts in a pan on the stove just until fragrant.
2. Brown the cubed pancetta in a pan.
3. Combine all of the salad ingredients in a bowl.

Make the vinaigrette

1. Add the olive oil, vinegar, orange juice, zest and seasonings to a small bowl or container.
2. Whisk or shake to combine.

Recipe tips

• Feel free to pluck the stems off the spinach leaves, if you prefer not to eat them.
• Toss the orange vinaigrette into the salad if you'll be serving the entire bowl immediately. Or, you can keep the dressing separate to use as needed, so you don't end up with soggy, leftover salad.
• You can prep the walnuts, pancetta, chopped onions and dressing a day ahead and store them separately in the refrigerator. Then, you can assemble the salad close to dinnertime.

What to serve with it

• This salad works well with roasted chicken thighs, sweet potatoes and veggies. We even add the leftovers to the salad for lunch!
• Try serving it with lemon maple salmon or baked glazed pork tenderloin.
• Turn this into a spinach pasta salad by adding boiled farfalle (bowtie pasta).

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• 50 BEST Spinach Recipes for Dinner

If you try this Mandarin Orange Spinach Salad recipe, please leave a comment and a rating!

(Recipe Source: Inspired by a Kitchen Boss recipe my son discovered and began making several years ago. Originally published on September 27, 2018 and updated now with additional photos and information.)