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Home » Salads » Avocado Toast Salad with Fennel, Blood Orange and Lemon Dill Vinaigrette

Published: Feb 26, 2019 · Modified: Mar 27, 2019 by Karly · This post may contain affiliate links

Avocado Toast Salad with Fennel, Blood Orange and Lemon Dill Vinaigrette

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A gloriously flavorful avocado toast salad with slivers of fennel, fresh blood orange, and a zippy lemon dill vinaigrette, whips up in minutes and is a surefire hit for any season. With a simple avocado toast recipe, prepared like a panzanella, this salad is tossed together before being lightly dressed, ready to be enjoyed for a simple lunch, or alongside dinner. A super simple salad, follow my preparation tips below to maximize flavor and minimize effort so you’ll be noshing in no time!side view of avocado toast salad by minneapolis food blogger a asimple pantry.

A salad for the ages

I’ve made a lot of salads over the years. From the most basic cucumber salad to fanciful harvest salad, it’s fairly obvious that my love for salads is strong.

Avocado toast has been around for a while now, and sometimes I worry the concept is a little played out. How sad, right?! I love me some avocado toast. But while browsing for new and exciting toast combos, I discovered several avocado salad recipes that had my heart fluttering something fierce.

And thus, I hit the drawing board, to whip up my own special version. A salad I am excited to add to my collection, and I hope to yours as well.

overhead view of avocado toast salad by minneapolis food blogger a simple pantry.

What bread should I use for avocado toast?

In truth, you can use any bread you like, even plain white sandwich bread. For a more flavorful experience, however, I recommend grabbing a crusty loaf of bread such as:

  • French baguette
  • Ciabatta
  • Sourdough

Great meals start with great extra virgin olive oil, and for this toast we want to drizzle the sliced bread with some California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil and sprinkle it with a smidge of salt before baking it in the oven. Once it’s golden and crisp, it gets chopped up and topped with slivers of fresh avocado! Let your food shine!

side view of pieces of avocado toast by minnesota food blogger asimplepantry.overhead view of ingredients for avocado toast salad by minnesota food blogger a simple pantry.

How to make avocado toast salad

Since the only “cooking” we have to worry about is toasting some bread, this salad comes together rather quickly.

I toss all my greens and herbs into my OXO Salad Spinner to wash and dry them in seconds, which is easily my favorite thing to do (just push the button to stop the spinning motion). No more wasting paper towels to dry everything manually or letting them sit inside a colander for what feels like forever, just to find half of it still wet.

I swear there is nothing worse than soggy greens.

  • Toss the greens with slivered fennel and slices of fresh blood orange, and cucumber.
  • Whip up the lemon dill vinaigrette with California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil in the OXO Salad Dressing Shaker for easy, clean pouring.
  • Add the avocado toast bites, feta, and seeds.
  • Dress the salad, and voila!

I love my OXO tools, because no matter my healthy goal, they’re there to help make it better. Love it.

side view of dressing being poured onto avocado toast salad by minneapolis food blogger a simple pantry.

What does fennel taste like?

If you’ve never tried fennel before, you are likely wondering what it tastes like. Most people associate fennel with anise or licorice, as it has a distinct aroma.

However, the licorice flavor really only resides in the fronds, which we aren’t using in this recipe.

The bulb is sliced thin and imparts a slightly sweet, almost spring-like flavor to the salad. Plus, it adds extraordinary crunch. What salad is complete without crunch?!

side view of avocado toast salad with fennel and blood orange by minneapolis food blogger a simple pantry.

Is there a fennel bulb substitute?

Of course! And while I don’t think there is anything quite as right for this salad as fennel, you can swap it with:

  • Bok choy
  • Belgian endive
  • Celery

None of the substitutes provide quite the same flavor, but they will provide that needed crunch. I would personally choose bok choy as my substitute, and if you like fennel but just don’t have any available, you can add a few fennel seeds to your substitute to help mimic the flavor.

side view of avocado toast salad by minnesota food blogger a simple pantry.overhead partial view of avocado toast salad by minneapolis food blogger a simple pantry.

Avocado Toast Salad with Fennel, Blood Orange, and Lemon Dill Vinaigrette

This wonderfully simple salad will quickly become your new favorite with sweet blood oranges, crunchy fennel, and dreamy avocado toast bits tossed in a zippy lemon dill vinaigrette! Whether you serve this avocado toast salad for lunch or alongside dinner, it will quickly become a household staple, and a refreshing change from the salads of old.

If you like this recipe, please give it a 5 star rating.

You may also like…

  • Mediterranean Chickpea Salad
  • Roasted Za’atar Carrots and Kale Salad
  • Mexican Caesar Salad

Avocado Toast Salad with Fennel, Blood Orange, and Lemon Dill Vinaigrette

A gloriously flavorful Avocado Toast Salad with slivers of fennel, fresh blood orange, and a zippy lemon dill vinaigrette, whips up in minutes with the help of the OXO Salad Spinner, and is a surefire hit for any season! With a simple avocado toast recipe, this salad is tossed together before being lightly dressed, ready to be enjoyed for a simple lunch, or alongside dinner!
5 from 3 votes
Print Pin Rate
Course: Appetizer, Salad, Salads, Side Dish
Prep Time: 10 minutes
Cook Time: 5 minutes
Total Time: 15 minutes
Servings: 4
Calories: 395kcal
Author: Karly Gomez

Ingredients

Salad

  • 6 ½" slices french baguette
  • 2 tablespoons California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil
  • kosher salt, to taste
  • fresh cracked pepper to taste
  • ½ small avocado sliced thin
  • 4 cups mixed greens
  • 1 cup fennel sliced thin
  • 1 cup cucumber sliced thin
  • 1 small blood orange peeled and sliced
  • ½ cup feta
  • ¼ cup sunflower seeds
  • ¼ cup toasted walnuts

Dressing

  • ¼ cup California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil
  • 1 teaspoon fresh lemon zest
  • 2 tablespoons fresh lemon juice
  • 2 teaspoons dijon mustard
  • 1 garlic clove minced
  • ¼ teaspoons fresh dill chopped
  • kosher salt to taste
  • fresh cracked pepper to taste
US Customary - Metric

Instructions

  • Preheat oven to 350 degrees. Add the baguette slices on a cookie sheet and brush with the California Olive Ranch extra virgin olive oil. Sprinkle with salt and pepper and bake until golden and crisp, around 5-7 minutes. Let cool for a minute, then top with sliced avocado. Cut avocado toasts into small bites.
  • Add the fresh greens to the OXO Salad Spinner and wash thoroughly. Turn the cleaned greens out into a large bowl, then add the fennel, cucumber, blood orange and avocado toast bites. Top with the feta, sunflower seeds, and walnuts.
  • In the OXO Salad Dressing Shaker, add all the dressing ingredients. Shake vigorously to combine, then drizzle over the salad. Divide the salad between four plates and enjoy!

Nutrition

Calories: 395kcal | Carbohydrates: 11g | Protein: 7g | Fat: 37g | Saturated Fat: 7g | Cholesterol: 16mg | Sodium: 272mg | Potassium: 423mg | Fiber: 3g | Sugar: 2g | Vitamin A: 625IU | Vitamin C: 21mg | Calcium: 130mg | Iron: 1.5mg
MADE THIS RECIPE?Click here to leave a comment + star rating! ★★★★★

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This is a sponsored post written by me on behalf of OXO and California Olive Ranch.

Imagery Shot With

photo-accessoriesCanon EOS 6D | Canon EF 50mm f/1.8 STM Lens

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About Karly

From her childhood home in Southern Minnesota, Karly embraces the crazy of everyday life by creating delicious dishes her family and friends love, while experimenting with new flavors and techniques and photographing the results. Karly’s love for beautiful foods and joy for creating is infectious to all who meet her.

Reader Interactions

Comments

  1. Jennifer Farley says

    March 05, 2019 at 10:50 am

    5 stars
    I am all about avocado toast and just love this idea!

    Reply
  2. Jenn says

    March 05, 2019 at 10:28 am

    5 stars
    Hello salad of my dreams! Such a creative concept with so many tasty fresh ingredients — I’m in love!

    Reply

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author karly gomez of a simple pantry with a background of red bell peppers
Hi, I'm Karly! Welcome to A Simple Pantry, where you’ll find inspiration for any meal and every occasion with tried-and-tested recipes, step-by-step tutorials, and occasional cooking videos that help you prepare easy gourmet dishes the whole family will love.
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i prefer margaritas and sitting in the shade to piña coladas and getting caught in the rain.

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