Turkey Salad
18 Comments
Nov 29, 2024
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This turkey salad is my favorite way to turn leftover holiday turkey into something irresistibly delicious! Tender turkey is tossed with crisp celery, crunchy pecans, sweet-tart dried cranberries, green onions, fresh herbs, and the creamiest dressing.
Why I Love This Turkey Salad So Much
Whenever I have leftover roast turkey, this crisp, and creamy salad has become my go-to meal after Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. I’ll admit, I’m a bit predictable with my love for high-protein salads like this—whether it’s chicken salad, tuna salad, or shrimp salad. But this particular combination captures the essence of fall in every bite, making it extra special for this time of year. Here’s what else I love about it:
- It’s easy to make. Since you’ll likely have most of the ingredients already from holiday cooking, this salad comes together fast! And if you’re making this from scratch, the recipe is incredibly simple.
- It’s healthy and refreshing. After a heavy holiday feast, all I crave is a fresh, low-carb salad. And this one hits the spot! You can also enjoy it on butter lettuce leaves or roll it into a wrap with extra greens for a satisfying, wholesome meal.
- It’s meal prep-friendly and protein-packed. With the holiday hustle, it’s such a relief to have a delicious, protein-packed dish ready to go in the fridge. Plus, it stays fresh for up to five days, making it perfect for meal prep.
Turkey Salad Ingredients
- Turkey Meat: Be sure to remove the skin before dicing it up. This ensures a smooth, creamy texture without unexpected bits of skin in every bite. And be sure to check out my other leftover turkey recipes for more ideas!
- Mayonnaise and Dijon Mustard: This dynamic duo creates a perfectly creamy, tangy, and slightly spiced dressing that coats the salad beautifully. It’s the backbone of the flavor!
- Pecans and Dried Cranberries: These fall-inspired ingredients add a delightful nutty crunch and sweet-tart chewiness. If you prefer a different nut or dried fruit, feel free to swap them out for your favorites.
- Vegetables: I’m using green onions and celery for a refreshing crunch. But you could also use red onions or shallots, if you have them on hand.
- Fresh Herbs: I’m using parsley and dill, but any tender herbs you have on hand will work. Think chives, tarragon, or even cilantro for a twist!
- Lemon Juice: A squeeze of fresh lemon juice helps to brighten up this whole salad.
Find the printable recipe with measurements below.
How To Make Turkey Salad
Mix everything together. Add the turkey, pecans, cranberries, green onions, celery, mayonnaise, mustard, parsley, dill, lemon juice, salt, and black pepper to a large mixing bowl. Toss everything together until it’s well combined.
Chill and serve. Let the salad chill in the fridge until you’re ready to serve. And the best part is that this will last for a few days in the fridge so you can enjoy it throughout the week! See my storage tips below.
More Ways To Enjoy
- Lettuce wraps: Dollop a large spoonful of this salad onto butter lettuce leaves or lettuce cups for an extra refreshing and light meal. Romaine lettuce works too!
- Tortilla wrap: Layer baby spinach or kale on top of a tortilla. Then add spoonfuls of this turkey salad on top before rolling it up into a wrap. If you have extra microgreens or sprouts, add them for more greens!
- Sandwich: This is great on top of toast or a flatbread for an open-faced or regular sandwich. Top it with extra lettuce leaves and microgreens for a full meal.
Storage Tips
This turkey salad is best served chilled, so avoid leaving it out at room temperature for more than two hours. If you’re not planning to enjoy it right away, store it in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will stay fresh for 4 to 5 days.
More Fall Salad Recipes
- Roasted Beet and Kale Salad: Amp up your salad with roasted beets!
- Simple Kale Salad: My go-to simple salad that I serve on repeat.
- Broccoli Salad: A classic salad that’s always requested by family and friends.
- Roasted Butternut Squash Salad: A great way to incorporate more fall and winter veggies into your salad.
- Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad: A refreshing way to serve sprouts this season.
- Or browse through more salad recipes for more inspiration!
If you make this turkey salad recipe, I’d love to hear how it turned out in the comment box below! Your review will help other readers in the community. And if you’re hungry for more healthy food inspiration (and exclusive content), join my free newsletter.
Ultimate Turkey Salad
Description
Video
Equipment
- Glass Mixing Bowls My favorite set of mixing bowls!
Ingredients
- 4 cups diced turkey meat
- 1 cup mayonnaise
- 1 tablespoon Dijon mustard
- ½ cup roughly chopped pecans
- ½ cup dried unsweetened cranberries
- 3 green onions (green and white parts), sliced
- 2 celery ribs, diced
- 2 tablespoons finely chopped parsley
- 1 tablespoon finely chopped dill
- 1 lemon, juiced (about 3 tablespoons)
- kosher salt and freshly ground black pepper, to taste
Instructions
- Mix together. To a large mixing bowl, add the turkey, mayonnaise, mustard, pecans, cranberries, green onions, celery, parsley, dill, lemon juice, salt, and pepper. Mix everything together until it's well combined.
- Chill and serve. Let it chill in the fridge until you're ready to serve.
Lisa’s Tips
- When it comes to dicing the turkey, if you plan to serve this up in bowls and eat it with fork, you can keep the turkey pieces about the same size in the photos. If you plan on serving it up in sandwiches or wraps, you may want to dice the pieces just a bit smaller.
- Storage tip: This turkey salad is best served chilled, so avoid leaving it out at room temperature for more than two hours. If you’re not planning to enjoy it right away, store it in an airtight container in the fridge, where it will stay fresh for 4 to 5 days.
- Turkey prep tip: Make sure to remove the skin from the turkey! This ensures a smooth, creamy texture without unexpected bits of skin in every bite.
Nutrition
©Downshiftology. Content and photographs are copyright protected. Sharing of this recipe is both encouraged and appreciated. Copying and/or pasting full recipes to any social media is strictly prohibited.
Behind The Scenes
Once you’ve made as many of these high-protein salads as I’ve made, it’s pretty easy to nail the recipe on the first test run (photo above). For me, the hardest part is just deciding what veggies, herbs, and crunch I’d like to add. And given the seasonality of the turkey, the cranberries and pecans were an easy choice! But as always, have fun with the recipe and feel free to use what you have on hand. It’s a very flexible and forgiving salad recipe!
I hosted Thanksgiving this year for the first time in nearly ten years. While I was happy to have leftovers I was also looking for new ways to use up leftover turkey. This turkey salad was a big hit and if I had more turkey I would have doubled it. It was gobbled up (no pun intended) quickly. I’ll be using this recipe throughout the year to make it with chicken.
Hi Kathleen – I’m happy to hear you loved this turkey salad made from your leftovers. It really does get gobbled up fast, haha. And yes, it’s great year-round as well. Enjoy!
I loved this turkey salad, though I did make a few substitutions based on personal preferences. I swapped out half the mayo for plain lowfat yogurt, subbed fresh pomegranate arils for the cranberries, and 2 tsp ACV for the lemon juice. The addition of Dijon and Dill were new for me and really turned this salad into something special. I wish I had more left over turkey to make it again!
Hi Angela – Happy to hear you were able to turn your leftover turkey into something so delicious!
Not a fan of chicken salad but my mother is and the leftover turkey dark and white diced was exactly 4 cups. I added a chopped up Honeycrisp apple, used shallots intead of green onions and it was a mighty tasty concoction. Thank you for the recipe.
Those are perfect swaps and great job using what you have on hand. I’m glad your mom enjoyed it!
This recipe is absolutely delicious!! I have no clue why in all the years I’ve cooked turkey I never thought to make turkey salad!!! 🤦🏻♀️ I will definitely make this a tradition from now on every day after Thanksgiving!! 😋
Hi Sandy – I’m glad I could bring you a little inspiration for those turkey leftovers! Turkey salad is definitely the best use of leftover Thanksgiving turkey, in my opinion. ;) Enjoy!
Looks like a great recipe for all the left over turkey I had last night. How would you prep this to freeze or is that possible? Trying to make meals that I can pop out of the freezer for week night dinners.
Hi Carol – It’s best not to freeze this as it has mayonnaise in it.
Hi Lisa, I made this exactly like the recipe! The only change was I did not have the dried
cranberries, so I used my homemade cranberry, orange rosemary chutney I had left over from Thanksgiving dinner, and I used it in place of the dried cranberries, and it was delicious!!!! This reminds me of a turkey salad sandwich I had many years ago at Nordstroms Cafe around the holidays!!! Food brings back clear memories of good times!!! This salad would make a great sandwich treat for a luncheon or tea party sandwich!!! It looks really pretty as well! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!
Hi Lisa – I love the idea of adding a cranberry chutney to this instead! Glad you enjoyed this turkey salad :)
This left-over Turkey Salad is a knockout. The seasonings you chose elevated the salad beyond any I’ve had before.
I prefer walnuts instead of pecans in a salad so I substituted those.
Thanks so much
Yay, I’m so happy you loved it, Maurice!
I made this today, and it is delicious! I didn’t have dried cranberries but I did have leftover cranberry sauce which I used. I also used dry dill and parsley, not having time to go to the grocery store and walnuts because that’s what was in the pantry. I love your recipes–they are easy and flavorful and so forgiving when some ingredients are not available.
Hi Lauren – I’m so glad you enjoyed this leftover turkey salad idea!
Wonderfully fresh, light and tasty and on top of it easy yo make.
I really love your recipes. Thank you so much
Thanks so much, Korinna! I’m really glad you enjoy them!