This simple arugula salad is taken to the next level with creamy burrata cheese and delicious homemade balsamic glaze. With lots of fresh cherry tomatoes, this beautiful salad is perfect any time of year.

A white platter with arugula burrata salad on a marble background, with a bowl of balsamic glaze and a wooden salad serving spoon to the side.

This salad is unbelievably easy. And yet, it feels kind of special. The simplicity of this salad lets all the fresh ingredients shine. Peppery baby arugula and sweet cherry tomatoes in a rainbow of beautiful colors. Fresh creamy cheese and a simple extra virgin olive oil dressing, with a homemade balsamic glaze that has just the right amount of sweetness. This salad doesn’t need anything fancy to dress it up. It’s simple perfection.

This is a delicious and beautiful summer salad, perfect to use up all your garden grown cherry tomatoes. But, it’s also my favorite salad for Christmas. I mean… just look at those colors. What a beautiful centerpiece for your holiday table! This is a great side dish with any Italian meal, like sun dried tomato pesto chicken or homemade instant pot turkey meatballs. It’s also perfect as a main course on a busy weeknight with some sliced chicken breast, salty prosciutto or grilled salmon. For other amazing cherry tomato recipes, try cherry tomato bruschetta or my pesto butter salmon sheet pan dinner.

Ingredients

For this easy arugula burrata salad, you need the following simple ingredients (exact measurements are in the recipe card below).

For the salad:

Arugula: Peppery arugula is great in this salad, but you could also use fresh baby spinach or spring mix.
Cherry Tomatoes: Ripe tomatoes from the garden or farmers market really make this salad outstanding. But, this salad is also so pretty for Christmas that I usually still make it in the winter with the cherry tomatoes from the grocery store.
Fresh burrata cheese: If you can’t find fresh burrata, fresh mozzarella cheese would be a great substitute. The little pearls of mozzarella that come packed in water would be my choice. Use any fresh Italian cheese that you love!
Extra-virgin olive oil: Choose a good quality olive oil, as it is the main dressing on this salad!
Kosher salt or flaky sea salt
Fresh ground black pepper

For the balsamic glaze:

Balsamic vinegar
Brown sugar
Note: Balsamic glaze is super easy to make at home, but if you are short on time you can buy pre-packaged balsamic glaze at most large grocery stores. That would be totally fine in this salad!

Instructions

Step One: Make the balsamic glaze. Add the balsamic vinegar and brown sugar to a small saucepan, and stir to combine. Put on the stove top over medium heat, and bring to a simmer. Simmer for 10-15 minutes, until the liquid reduces by about half. At this point, the balsamic reduction should coat the back of a spoon, but it will still be thin. Remove it from the heat and allow it to come to room temperature, and it will thicken to a perfect drizzling consistency.

A close up of a spoon drizzling balsamic glaze into a white bowl.

Step Two: Prepare the ingredients. Cut all the cherry tomatoes in half. Rinse and dry the arugula. Drain the water off of the fresh burrata cheese, and pat the cheese dry with a paper towel.

A grey cutting board on a marble background with yellow and red cherry tomatoes sitting next to a white handle knife.

Step Three: Assemble the salad. Layer the arugula on a large platter. Arrange the cherry tomatoes on top of the arugula. Put the burrata cheese in the middle of the salad.

A white platter on a marble background, with arugula on it.

A white platter on a marble background, with arugula and cherry tomatoes.

A white platter with salad on a marble background, with a ball of burrata on top, in tact and not yet broken open.

Step Four: Cut open the burrata cheese. Drizzle olive oil on top of the salad, and sprinkle it with kosher salt and fresh black ground pepper to taste.

A white platter with salad on a marble background, with a ball of burrata broken open on top.

A white platter with arugula burrata salad on a marble background, with the salad drizzled in olive oil.

Step Five: Drizzle the balsamic glaze over the salad and serve!

A white platter with arugula burrata salad on a marble background, with the salad fully assembled.

Storage

This salad is best eaten right away. If you do have leftovers, scoop the burrata off the top, and store the leftover salad and leftover burrata separately in airtight containers in the refrigerator. Eat the leftovers within a day or two!