Strawberry Spinach Salad Recipe: contrasting greens, brilliant berries, walnuts and blue cheese burst with flavor in this beautiful salad. Make the sweet, tangy, homemade poppy seed dressing in your blender.
Hope everyone is well at your house! We’ve got a few heavy colds going on around here and that’s no fun at all. Recently a friend told us about a homeopathic cold remedy called Coldcalm. Have you heard of it? It’s manufactured by the same folks who make that homeopathic flu remedy I swear by: oscillococcinum. Not that I can spell it (without Google!), let alone pronounce it.
So this Coldcalm stuff did the trick for some of us. You take it right when you feel that first tickle of a cold coming on. So we did a “blind” study in our family, and two of us avoided getting the cold by taking it every two hours. And two of us succumbed. Have you ever tried Coldcalm and what did you think?
It’s wonderful to have fresh fruits and produce available all year long. And we need them to keep our immune system strong. One salad we love is this fabulous Strawberry Spinach Salad! It’s so pretty with the contrasting greens and berries.
The dressing is easily made in the blender. Vinegar and sugar (or honey) combine with onion, sesame and poppy seeds, creating a tangy and sweet homemade dressing that we use on other salads too.
Process the dressing in the blender several hours ahead and let the flavors mingle in the refrigerator. Just before serving, toss the greens with the poppy seed dressing. Then arrange the strawberries, blue cheese and walnuts on top of the bed of greens.
So pretty, great flavor and healthy too. Use this salad as a colorful side dish, or toss some shredded chicken onto your Strawberry Spinach Salad Recipe for extra protein and a main dish meal.
This salad might become a new favorite at your house. Gorgonzola or feta cheese is easily interchanged for the blue cheese. Pecans can be substituted for walnuts.
Strawberry Spinach Salad
Ingredients
- Dressing ingredients:
- 1/2 cup honey or sugar
- 2 tablespoons sesame seeds
- 1 tablespoon poppy seeds
- 1 1/2 tablespoons fresh chopped onion or 1/2 teaspoon dried minced onion
- 1/4 teaspoon worcestershire sauce
- 1/4 teaspoon paprika
- 1/2 cup vegetable oil
- 1/4 cup cider vinegar
- Salad ingredients:
- 1 pint strawberries stems removed, sliced
- 1/2 cup "broken walnuts"
- 10 ounce bag washed spinach
- 1/3 cup crumbled blue cheese or gorgonzola
Instructions
- Blend all dressing ingredients in the blender for about a minute.
- Refrigerate several hours.
- Pour dressing over spinach and toss.
- Arrange strawberries on top.
- Scatter blue cheese (or gorgonzola) and broken walnuts on top.
Serve this salad with: Jordan Marsh Blueberry Muffins
Aster says
I had this at your house one time! It’s delicious!!!
Taylor @ Food Faith Fitness says
This salad has everything that I LOVE! We are getting some super sweet strawberries right now, so this is perfect! Pinned!
nancy mcmahan says
A great salad to add to my list of salads for spring and summer. Thanks
Linda Jenkins says
This is one of my all time favorite salads. I love the sweet taste of the strawberries combined with the crunch of the nuts. Plus, I am a fan of spinach. I have forgotten this variety; need a change from my typical salad. Thanks for the reminder.
Tracy Costa says
I make this salad with Goat cheese and sugar coated nuts. I’ll have to try it with blue cheese. I bet it’s delicious! The pictures came out beautifully! You have become quite the photographer!!!
Christy says
One of my favorite things about your food blog posts is seeing familiar recipes and thinking, “I had no idea (or better said, “totally forgot”) where this recipe originated. So many of the recipes have come from our moms (ie. Jewish coffee cake) and have been circulated well among the girls. It makes me smile to see a favorite!!
Allie says
Something about excellent food that knits us all together so beautifully! Love my wonderful extended family!!!!
Kristi @ Inspiration Kitchen says
I *love* the look of this strawberry spinach salad! Not only is strawberry one of my favorite fruits – but I adore the spinach super food in it! I’d love this for lunch!
Catherine says
Strawberry salad reminds me of warmer days! This sounds wonderful…so light and refreshing. xo, Catherine
Sarah says
Anything with strawberries and spinach is sure to taste awesome, in my book!
Lily Lau says
I had never in this life thought of adding strawberries to the salad… you’ve just opened my eyes!
Kami says
This looks so good! Pinned! 🙂
Liz says
This looks like my mom’s spinach salad recipe—except that you added blue cheese! What a terrific tweak!!! A must make recipe 🙂
Catherine says
Dear Allie, I just started adding more fruit to my leafy green salads and I find that the family enjoys it more that way. This looks so beautiful! The sweet fruit and the salty crumbled cheese is such a wonderful combo…I could make a meal of this. Wishing you and yours a very happy and blessed New Year. Cheers to prosperous and delicious year of blogging! xoxo, Catherine
Shashi at RunninSrilankan says
Dear Allie I am so glad you linked up this recipe on FB as I hadn’t seen it before (this was before I stumbled by your space) and I gotta say I am so loving that poppy seed and sesame seed dressing! Lovely pairing of ingredients – I so gotta try this this weekend! Happy New Year! xoxo
Ramona W says
Happy New Year 2016 Allie! This salad looks like a warm ray of sunshine on this cold blustery day! I would eat it happily. 🙂
Kellie says
I made this past weekend when we were asked to bring a salad to a dinner party. They have organic strawberries at my local grocery store at this time of year, so they were delicious. Anyway, everyone LOVED it and asked for the recipe! I directed them here. Thank you for this recipe!!!!
Allie says
Dear Kellie, so glad to hear you enjoyed this recipe at your dinner party. Seriously, it’s one of our favorites. And yay for organic strawberries! Thanks for dropping by!
Carol Borchardt says
LOVE strawberry and spinach salad! Never had it with blue cheese….but I’m about to! Yum.
Eva says
Eh oui, tu as bien raison Allie, avec une bonne alimentation, on a moins des risques d’avoir des méchant virus! Ta salade est parfait pour prendre des forces et commencer à éliminer les kilos des fêtes! xoxo
Aunt Pinkie says
Looks sooo good!
Denise Q. says
I’m having some friends over for lunch soon and I can’t wait to make this for them.!
Carina says
Dear Allie, this is my kind of salad. I am such a fan of spinach, and love it with strawberries. The dressing! Yum! Glad you posted this one – awesome reminder and we will enjoy it soon. ?Thanks, and have a wonderful weekend. Xoxo
Carina says
Ps – Hope everyone is over their colds soon and feeling 100%. (By thr way, I had not heard of Coldcalm!)
Susie Mandel says
We love that stuff I’m not going to try and spell, too, so we definitely need to keep some Coldcalm on hand as well!
Carolyn Voegtlin says
Allie,
Made this one for Sunday family lunch – it’s a great salad. Thanks again for another winner 🙂
I love your blob -er I mean, blog. (I know some family member related my malapropism to you. Are there no secrets in this world????)
Love you & yours,
Carolyn
Allie says
Hi Carolyn, Happy New Year! So glad you tried this salad, I really love the dressing on this one – sweet and love the onions with the strawberries and spinach. Thanks so much for dropping by, so glad you are enjoying the blob. (Did I say that?) Love to all – XO