A hearty, flavorful and healthy salad made with leftover turkey or chicken, this Turkey Cranberry Salad with Pecans is a great lunch idea during the holiday season, or anytime! It’s Paleo, low carb, and Whole30 friendly, and can be served warm or cold.
Anything warm just sounds really good right about now. Oops that was another weather reference. Getting old, I know. Anyway, this Paleo turkey cranberry salad with walnuts is meant to be served warm, which makes it the perfect kind of salad for winter!
I think it’s so funny that I still get that “feel good Friday” thing even though Fridays now don’t mean much of anything fun or feel good, and haven’t for a long time, since weekends can be just as much work as weekdays (if not more!) Especially if I have an early, cold (weather again) long run planned like I do for tomorrow.
Why do I do this to myself? Because I feel awesome when I come back, yes, right. And because the long run will not run itself, you have to show up to gain that fitness. And after that’s done with, the real fun for the weekend can finally begin. With laundry, the dishwasher, and cleaning up toys it’s just one big party. There is seriously no greater feeling than stepping in the house after a long winter run, regardless of what goes on afterwards.
Back to food, and back to this salad.
I love chicken salad made with homemade mayo, we all know that by now and it’s not changing. I decided to do a little variation on it, a delicious “winter” version, if you will. So it’s not chicken at all, it’s turkey, and it’s served warm, so there’s less waiting. When you’re hungry waiting is just no fun!
Also, unlike a cold chicken salad, you don’t have to plan this in advance, you can be spontaneous and spur of the moment and all that good stuff (don’t feel committed to serving it warm, though, it’s just as good cold!) You can make this with turkey cutlets or make good use of leftover roasted turkey (or chicken) for a quick meal.
Warm Turkey Cranberry Walnut Salad
Ingredients
- 1 lb Turkey breast cutlets or tenderloin if you don't have leftover turkey or chicken OR
- chopped/shredded leftover turkey or chicken meat 3 cups
- 1/2 tsp sea salt pepper
- 1 tsp onion powder
- 2 tbsp lard tallow, ghee, coconut oil or other cooking fat
- 1/2 cup homemade mayo* or preferred mayo
- 1/2 chopped pecans
- 1/2 cup dried cranberries
Instructions
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Flatten or slice the turkey cutlets so they are about 1/2-3/4 inch thickness, and season with sea salt, pepper, and onion powder (skip this is you're using leftover meat)
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Heat a large skillet over medium heat and add the 2 tbsp cooking fat
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Once heated, add the turkey to the pan and cook about 5 minutes on each side, or until cooked through (no longer any pink in the middle)
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While the turkey cooks, make your mayo*
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Once the turkey is done, place it on a cutting board and let it cool slightly before chopping it into bite size pieces.
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In a large bowl, add the chopped turkey (or leftovers), cranberries, chopped pecans, and toss with about 1/4 cup of mayo. Add more mayo to suit your preference. (If you're making this a warm salad, the mayo will melt and look more like a glaze or sauce.)
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Serve right away over greens, in lettuce boats, or however you'd like. You can save leftovers in an air tight container in the fridge.
*Here is my recipe for homemade mayo.
Perfect for a weekend lunch, and yes, you can eat the leftovers cold, I mean “chilled” (if you’re fancy.) Heck, you can make the whole thing into a cold salad by letting the turkey cool completely or using cold leftover turkey if that’s more appealing to you. Whatever floats your lettuce boat is just fine with me 🙂
Do you get that “fun Friday” feeling?
Have you used mayo in a warm dish? It’s way better than you might think!
Enjoy your weekend everyone!
well…for me i’m reading this friday at 2pm, finally getting to eat lunch at my desk, and its already like the 52nd hour of work for me this week. so YES i get that friday pep feeling !!!!! i got it yesterday cuz i swear yesterday should have been friday ! i never thought about the fact that for people who stay home and have kids friday might not be that great cuz it means you are going into the hectic week with the kids at home, etc. i can relate though when i was doing long run in the summer training for a half marathon (i am NOT a winter runner at least not long outside runs) i sorta hated friday a bit cuz of that.
I remember that feeling WAYYY long ago before kids, especially when my husband and I were first dating and I knew we’d be hanging out all weekend. Now though, there’s definitely less “up and down” with my mood throughout the week, as every day is sort of the same! Agree that marathon training totally changes that feeling though 🙂 Have a fabulous Friday/weekend!!
I get the fun Friday feeling on Friday afternoons when work is done and I know I can use the evening to relax. Then it goes away on Saturday morning when I realize that I have tonnes of errands to run and things to prep for the coming week 😆 So yeah… Friday evenings are definitely my favourite time of the week.
My happy Friday feeling is always gone by 9pm Friday night when my eyes are closing! And I totally relate to that feeling of needing to prep for the coming week! Sometimes I can put that feeling off until Sunday morning but more often it’s on Saturday like you. Enjoy your night!
I get a brief fun Friday feeling – it lasts about half the day and then it kicks in that I have a lot of stuff to do. 🙂 Looks like a delicious salad. Have to give it a try. Enjoy the weekend!
Very brief, yes I relate! Enjoy the weekend and hope you get to relax a little 🙂
I haven’t felt that way about Fridays since I was in college! Soon afterwards my weekends revolved around my long runs. Now I work every other weekend so my Fridays I really just lay low.
As great as long runs can be, the anticipation definitely kills that Friday fun/freedom feeling! Also working on the weekends changes it too. Hope you enjoy whatever you have planned this weekend 🙂
friday feeling! yes, right after i finish teaching. Now if only i had this for lunch to end on a high note! YUM
Hope you try it! I’m trying to savor the Saturday morning feeling now (nothing planned until later!) but nothing is quite the same as the TGIF 🙂 Enjoy your weekend!
It looks like there is celery in the picture but not in the recipe. Is that something that is suppose to be in there?