Turkey Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts
This Turkey Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts is the perfect thing to make with your leftovers from Thanksgiving, or anytime during the year as you can easily substitute chicken for the turkey. It has that awesome Thanksgiving flavor but it’s lighter and since it’s served cold, it’s a nice break from the usual gravy-laden leftover fare.
I consider myself extremely lucky to have an entire gallon sized container packed FULL of leftover turkey meat. Using two cups of turkey to make this salad barely even made a dent in it. Since I’m now 8 months pregnant and down to the final countdown, I have grand plans to stock my freezer with turkey pot pies this week so we’re all set after baby comes.
This turkey salad has dried cranberries, but if you have leftover fresh cranberries (which are less sweet and more tart) those can also be used. The cranberries add a bit of a sweet and tart kick to the salad, and the walnuts and celery add a great crunch. The parsley adds speckles of green (which makes it super festive and pretty paired with the red cranberries). It’s the PERFECT turkey salad!
If you are lucky like me, you’ll get to put this on homemade rosemary bread (courtesy of my brother-in-law). My goodness, these sandwiches were good!
The best part about this recipe? It makes about four sandwiches, so it’s the perfect thing to take to work this week and reminisce about your wonderful holiday break. Or, have it on crackers, or even on a bed of greens (I loved doing this as a low-carb option when I was eating mostly Paleo in the beginning of this year).
If you’re looking for a good, easy turkey recipe, try this juicy slow cooker boneless turkey breast or this instant pot turkey breast with lemon and thyme.
Recipe for Turkey Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts below!
Turkey Salad with Cranberries and Walnuts
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Equipment
- Large Bowl
Ingredients
- 2 cups turkey meat chopped (chicken can also be used)
- 1/4 cup dried cranberries or chopped fresh cranberries
- 1/4 cup walnuts or pecans, chopped
- 1 rib celery finely diced
- 1 tablespoon fresh parsley chopped
- 1/4 cup mayonnaise
- kosher salt to taste
- black pepper to taste
Instructions
- Mix all ingredients in a bowl.
- Serve on crackers, on a sandwich, or on a bed of greens.
Notes
- This turkey salad can be stored in the refrigerator in an airtight container for up to 5 days.
- The provided nutrition information does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. Feel free to calculate it yourself using this calculator or by adding the recipe to Yummly.
Nutrition
Nutrition Information Disclaimer
The provided nutrition information is my best estimate and reflects one serving of the recipe (total servings indicated at top of recipe card). It does not include any added sodium from seasoning to taste, any optional ingredients, and it does not take brands into account. I use an automatic API to calculate this information. Feel free to calculate it yourself using one of these tools:
Added some spicy Thai Garlic Chili Paste to the mayo for a bit of zip. Yummy!
Yum! Great idea.
Absolutely fabulous…and I’m not even a turkey or chicken fan. 2 things; I used a rotisserie Chicken AND I substituted cilantro for parsley. Turned out great!
So glad you liked it!
Nice twist on chicken salad! We substituted rotisserie chicken for turkey, as this was easier for us.
So glad you liked it!
Loved it. Can you please share the recipe for the bread too? P&T.
I’ll see if I can track down that specific recipe for you- it’s not mine. BUT, I love just chopping up fresh rosemary and adding it into any standard bread recipe you want! I’ve done that with no knead dutch oven bread, and brushed the top with olive oil and sprinkled with more rosemary and sea salt, and it came out AMAZING. Here’s the recipe for the standard dutch oven bread and I’ll let you know if I can find that other recipe! https://www.bowlofdelicious.com/dutch-oven-bread/
I prefer pecans and add a bit of chopped green onion tops. This recipe is addictive and I call it crack salad. I eat it at least once a week.
So happy you like it!
Enjoyed this recipe as a great base! Since I had some fresh parsley, thyme and rosemary leftover I also added 1/2-1 tsp of each to the mix. I sprinkled some ground sage in as well…”Parsley,sage, rosemary and thyme”…..
I added almost 2 stalks celery and one green onion. Sprinkled with a little salt and quite a bit of fresh ground pepper. It is yummy! We will have this with organic multi seed bread with lettuce and maybe a slice of cheese!!
Love your variations, thanks for sharing! So glad you liked it!
I was raised in the north east and all we ever did with leftover turkey was to make meat pies using the gravy.
I now live in Florida and this is absolutely the favorite summer recipe from now on. And since it’s always summer down here, you can finish that thought!
I’m from the north east too! Meat pies are great, but turkey salad is much better for year-round summer :-) So glad you liked it!
Love this! Perfect snack – lunch – thank you enjoy