On December 24 in central Mexico, the cold dish on many tables, next to salt cod and romeritos, is a platter of beets, jicama, oranges, pomegranate and peanuts dressed with citrus: ensalada de Nochebuena (en-sah-LAH-dah deh noh-cheh-BWEH-nah), Christmas Eve salad. It looks like a jewel box when it goes out and like a pink mess twenty minutes later, unless the beets are handled one particular way. This recipe is built around that.
What Mexican Christmas Eve salad is, and is it worth making
How do you make Mexican Christmas Eve salad? Roast whole beets wrapped in foil at 400°F (200°C) for 60 minutes, then peel and cube them once cold. Meanwhile cut jicama into sticks, segment oranges, seed a pomegranate and cut sugarcane. Layer everything over romaine with the beets dressed separately and placed on top, scatter peanuts, and pour a lime and orange dressing over it at the table. Ready in 100 minutes for 8 servings.
It is a fruit-and-vegetable salad, not a leafy one. The romaine is a bed; the point is the mix of textures, earthy beets, crunchy watery jicama, sharp orange, popping pomegranate, salty-sweet peanuts, and sugarcane sticks you chew for their juice and leave the fiber.
Worth making if your holiday table is heavy. With pernil, tamales or a rich stew, this is the one bright, cold, crunchy thing on it, and almost all the work can be done the day before.
Not worth it if you can’t get jicama or a crisp stand-in (see the swaps below), or if someone at the table has a peanut allergy and you don’t want to adapt it.
Don’t confuse it with Mexican Christmas apple salad, the other salad that often shares the table: apples, celery and nuts bound with cream, sweet and creamy. This one has no dairy at all.
Time. 100 minutes on the clock, about 65 of them hands-on, and only 8 on Christmas Eve if you prep on the 23rd. Difficulty: easy. The only real skill is timing the dressing.
Ingredients, and what to buy in a US or UK store
Everything is in the recipe card above; this is about choosing well and swapping sensibly. For 8 people you need 800 g (1¾ lb) beets, one 650 g (1.4 lb) jicama, 6 oranges, 1 pomegranate, a head of romaine, 100 g (⅔ cup) peanuts and, if you can find it, 300 g (10½ oz) sugarcane.
- Jicama is a round root with papery brown skin and crisp white flesh, mildly sweet, about 38 kcal per 100 g (3½ oz) raw according to USDA data. In the US it sits with the potatoes in most large supermarkets. Pick a heavy one with smooth, unblemished skin; under the skin there is a fibrous layer to peel off as well.
- Sugarcane turns up in lengths at Latin and Asian grocers in the US. Peel the hard rind with a heavy knife, top to bottom. It is optional: the salad loses one texture, not its point.
- Pomegranate: tubs of ready-seeded arils are sold in US and UK supermarkets and save 8 minutes.
- Peanuts: unsalted, dry-roasted. If only salted are available, halve the salt in the dressing.
- Beets: vacuum-packed cooked beets work if you have no oven. Pick the plain ones, not the ones in vinegar, drain well and cut cold. Flavor is flatter and they bleed more.
| If you can’t find | Use | What changes |
|---|---|---|
| Jicama, 550 g (1¼ lb) | Kohlrabi, same weight, peeled | Closest crunch, faint cabbage note the orange dressing covers |
| Jicama | Asian pear | Sweeter, weeps juice; cut and add at the last minute |
| Jicama | Granny Smith apple with lime | Tart, softens and browns; last minute only |
| Sugarcane | Leave it out | One fewer texture; nothing else changes |
| Peanuts | Toasted pumpkin seeds (pepitas) | Peanut-free; smaller crunch, nuttier |
| Fresh pomegranate | Ready-seeded arils, 150 g (5 oz) | Same result, no seeding |
The dressing ratio
Four parts orange juice to one part lime and one and a half parts oil: 120 ml (½ cup), 30 ml (2 tbsp) and 45 ml (3 tbsp), plus 12 g (1 tbsp) sugar and 5 g (1 tsp) salt. Shake it in a jar for 20 seconds. If your oranges are very sweet, take the lime up to 45 ml (3 tbsp).
How long to roast beets for a salad that stays clean
Whole and sealed in foil at 400°F (200°C), beets take 45 to 60 minutes, the range Oregon State University Extension gives; Purdue Extension gives about 45 minutes for half-inch cubes and for whole beets boiled in their skins, and about an hour for whole unwrapped beets.
I roast them whole for 60 minutes. Cubed beets roast faster, but every cut face leaks red juice; whole, the skin keeps it in and the flavor concentrates. Cool them in the foil for 20 minutes, then the skins rub off with a paper towel.
Keeping the beets from bleeding
Beet pigment dissolves in water and in citrus juice. Three habits keep the colors separate:
- Cut cold, cut late. Hot beets bleed more and break up at the edges. Cut on a plastic board, wearing gloves if you mind pink hands.
- Dress them on their own. Toss the cubes with 2 tbsp of the dressing in a separate bowl, then drain before plating.
- Layer, don’t toss. Lettuce first, then jicama and orange, then the beets in the center or in a stripe, then pomegranate, peanuts and sugarcane. The rest of the dressing goes on at the table. Tossed together, the whole platter is pink within 20 minutes.
Seeding a pomegranate without spraying the kitchen
Cut off the crown, score the skin into 4 or 5 sections along the white ridges, and break it open under water in a large bowl. The arils sink, the pith floats and lifts off by hand. A large pomegranate gives about 150 g (5 oz) of arils, in roughly 8 minutes.
Make-ahead plan for Christmas Eve
Everything except assembly can be done on December 23. That leaves 8 minutes of work on the 24th.
On the 23rd. Roast, peel, cube and dress the beets. Cut the jicama, segment the oranges, seed the pomegranate, cut the sugarcane and shake the dressing. Each goes into its own covered container in the fridge. Wash and spin the lettuce dry and wrap it in paper towel. Keep the peanuts in the cupboard so they stay crunchy.
On the 24th. Assemble no more than 30 minutes before dinner and dress it at the table.
Scaling for 8 and for 20
For 20, multiply by 2.5. Roasting time stays the same for same-size beets, and 2 kg (4½ lb) fits on one large sheet pan.
| Ingredient | Serves 8 | Serves 20 |
|---|---|---|
| Raw beets | 800 g (1¾ lb) | 2 kg (4½ lb) |
| Jicama | 1 medium, 650 g (1.4 lb) | 2 to 3, 1.6 kg (3½ lb) |
| Oranges, segments | 4 large | 10 large |
| Oranges, juice | 2, 120 ml (½ cup) | 5, 300 ml (1¼ cups) |
| Pomegranate | 1 large | 2 to 3 |
| Romaine | 1 head, 400 g (14 oz) leaves | 3 heads, 1 kg (2.2 lb) leaves |
| Sugarcane | 2 pieces, 25 cm (10 in) | 5 pieces |
| Peanuts | 100 g (⅔ cup) | 250 g (1⅔ cups) |
| Lime juice, olive oil | 30 ml (2 tbsp), 45 ml (3 tbsp) | 75 ml (5 tbsp), 110 ml (7½ tbsp) |
| Sugar, salt | 12 g (1 tbsp), 5 g (1 tsp) | 30 g (2½ tbsp), 12 g (2½ tsp) |
For a crowd of 20, I build two platters rather than one huge one; the second waits undressed in the fridge.
Mistakes that ruin Christmas Eve salad
- Everything turns pink → the beets were tossed in with the rest or not drained. Dress them apart, drain, put them on last.
- Limp lettuce → dressed too early. Dressing goes on at the table.
- Beets still hard after 60 minutes → they were large or the oven runs cool. Back in, still wrapped, for 15 minutes.
- Woody, bland jicama → an old one. Choose heavy for its size, with tight, smooth skin.
- Soft peanuts → they spent the night in the fridge or sat in dressing. Add them last.
Spice level, kids and allergens
Heat, 0 out of 5. Nothing in it is spicy.
Kids usually like it: it is sweet and crunchy. Explain the sugarcane: you chew it and spit out the fiber. Whole peanuts are a choking hazard for children under 4, according to the American Academy of Pediatrics; chop them fine or leave them off.
Allergens. Peanuts are one of the 9 major food allergens in the US (FDA) and one of the 14 that must be declared in the UK and EU. For a peanut-free table, use toasted pepitas and serve peanuts in a separate bowl. Otherwise the salad has no gluten, eggs or dairy. Check packaged peanuts for tree-nut traces.
Versions worth knowing
- Short on time → vacuum-packed beets and ready-seeded pomegranate: about 25 minutes.
- No oven → boil the beets whole in their skins for about 45 minutes, cool in the water, peel cold.
- Lighter → halve the peanuts and the oil. Per serving goes from about 250 to roughly 190 kcal.
- With apple → add a red apple in thin wedges with lime over it when you assemble; it is common in Mexican recipes.
- Creamy dressing → some published versions dress it with Mexican crema, orange juice and sugar. Sweeter, closer to the apple salad, and the beets turn the dressing pink.
- Hibiscus beets → other versions soak the cooked beets overnight in a sweet hibiscus (jamaica) syrup for a deeper color and sweeter flavor.
What it costs in the US
Using BLS US average prices for August 2026, the two ingredients the BLS tracks come to about $8.49 for 8: 1.1 kg (2.4 lb) of navel oranges at $1.709/lb, about $4.14, and 600 g (1.3 lb) of romaine at $3.286/lb, about $4.35. The BLS doesn’t publish prices for beets, jicama, pomegranates or loose peanuts, so they aren’t in the sum. Sugarcane and pre-seeded pomegranate arils are what push the bill up the most if you buy them.
Yield. 8 side servings of about 300 g (10½ oz), or 12 on a buffet with several dishes.
Serving and storing
Serve it cold, on a wide, shallow platter, as the fresh side to the heavy dishes. On a Mexican Christmas table that means Mexican Christmas bacalao, romeritos in mole with shrimp cakes or a pozole rojo for New Year’s Eve, with a hot Mexican Christmas fruit punch to drink. Pomegranate has its other big moment in late summer, scattered over chiles en nogada, poblanos in walnut sauce.
If your holiday table also has Venezuelan cooks at it, the creamy counterpart is Venezuelan chicken salad with potato, carrot and mayonnaise; both fit on one buffet next to a Venezuelan pernil.
Fridge. USDA FSIS guidance for prepared food: no more than 2 hours out of the fridge, 1 hour above 90°F (32°C). Undressed components in covered containers at 40°F (4°C) or below: roasted beets 3 to 4 days; I don’t keep cut jicama and orange segments past 2 days. Once dressed, eat it the same day, because the lettuce wilts within hours.
Freezer. No. Jicama, orange and lettuce collapse when thawed.
Frequently asked questions
What is in a Mexican Christmas Eve salad? Cooked beets, jicama, oranges, pomegranate, sugarcane, peanuts and lettuce, with an orange, lime and oil dressing. Some versions add apple.
How long do I roast beets for salad? Whole and wrapped in foil at 400°F (200°C), 45 to 60 minutes depending on size; done when a knife slides into the center.
How do I keep beets from staining the salad? Roast them whole, cut them cold, dress them separately, drain, and put them on top at the end. Dress the rest at the table.
What can I use instead of jicama in the UK? Raw kohlrabi is the closest in crunch. Asian pear is sweeter but weeps, so add it last.
Can I make it the day before? Yes, everything except assembly. Store each component separately and assemble in 8 minutes on the day.
Is it the same as Mexican Christmas apple salad? No. The apple salad is apples, celery and nuts in cream. This one is beets, jicama and citrus with no dairy.
How long does it keep? Undressed, roasted beets 3 to 4 days and cut fruit about 2. Dressed, the same day.
Nutrition per serving
Calculated ingredient by ingredient from USDA FoodData Central (SR Legacy) for one-eighth of the recipe, about 300 g (10½ oz): 700 g (1½ lb) cooked peeled beets, 550 g jicama, 500 g orange segments, 150 g pomegranate, 400 g romaine, 100 g peanuts and the full dressing. Sugarcane isn’t counted, since the fiber isn’t eaten.
- Calories: 250 kcal
- Protein: 7 g
- Carbohydrates: 33 g
- Fat: 12 g, of which saturated 2 g
- Fiber: 10 g
- Sugars: 21 g
- Sodium: 320 mg
Most of the sodium, about 240 mg a serving, comes from the salt in the dressing; beets bring about 67 mg of their own.
I didn’t grow up with this salad, and the first one I made went to the table already tossed and already pink. What changed it was treating the beets as a separate dish that only meets the others on the platter. A Christmas Eve salad should arrive at the table in five colors, not one. Josnaisis.