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This strawberry spinach salad has double the strawberries: sliced ripe berries and sweet tart strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing!
Get ready for your favorite side dish of the season: strawberry spinach salad! Oh yes. This green salad pairs with just about every meal. It’s got beautifully ripe strawberries, red onion slices, chopped pecans and a bit of salty feta. Then it’s all covered in a sweet tart strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing that makes it taste like gold. Alex and I like it with pizza, with salmon, with pasta…it goes with just about anything!
Start with perfectly ripe strawberries
Starting with ripe red strawberries is a must. Promise us that you’ll only make this salad if you have ripe, in-season strawberries? The flavor is all about the quality and sweetness of the berries. Out-of-season, tart or mealy strawberries just will not do. If you’re looking to mix it up with the type of berry, try our Blueberry Salad or Blackberry Salad.
Double the strawberry! Strawberry salad dressing
This strawberry spinach salad takes our classic strawberry salad recipe up a notch. How? It has double the strawberries: sliced strawberries and strawberries in the salad dressing. This strawberry vinaigrette will be your new favorite salad dressing: promise! It’s sweet tart, lightly sweetened with maple syrup, and bright pink using juicy ripe strawberries. Even better, it only takes 5 minutes to blend up! SO GOOD.
How to make strawberry spinach salad
Each ingredient in this easy strawberry spinach salad is chosen to pack maximum punch. Once you’ve got your ripe beautiful strawberries and lovely vibrant strawberry salad dressing, you’ll need just a few more ingredients to complement the mix. Here’s what you’ll need, in addition to the berries and vinaigrette:
- Mix of spinach & other greens: Tip: spinach salads that are 100% spinach can be intense on the flavor. How to fix it? Add some mixed greens too! This strawberry spinach salad has 5 cups spinach leaves and 3 cups mixed greens.
- Sliced red onions: Strawberries and red onion is a really great flavor combination! The savory bite of the onion is just perfect against the juicy berry. How to cut them like in the photo? Go to How to Cut an Onion.
- Pecans: Chopped pecans add a crunch that’s a perfect texture contrast! Of course you could use any nuts you like: walnuts, pistachios, almonds, etc.
- Cheese crumbles: This strawberry spinach salad is easily vegan (plant based) without the cheese. But for a savory, salty note, feta or goat cheese crumbles are perfection.
How to cut strawberries for salad
What’s the best way cut strawberries for salad? The other day my friend and I were making this. She went to cut the strawberries cross-wise, and they ended up in little circles! Of course that’s great if that’s what you’re going for! But here’s how to cut them like in the photo:
- Hull the strawberry (cut out the stem). Place a sharp paring knife at an angle at the base of the stem. Cut in a shallow cut, then rotate the strawberry around the knife. This cuts out the stem instead of cutting it out (more info here). If you’re feeling lazy, simply cut off the stem as close to the greens as possible.
- Cut thin slices lengthwise. Cut thin slices lengthwise along the strawberry, so you get that beautiful strawberry shape.
And that’s it: how to make strawberry spinach salad! Let us know in the comments below if you give it a try. It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t like this one!
This strawberry spinach salad recipe is…
Vegetarian and gluten-free. For dairy-free, plant-based, and vegan, omit the cheese.
Strawberry Spinach Salad (with Strawberry Dressing!)
This strawberry spinach salad has double the strawberries: sliced ripe berries and sweet tart strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing!
- Prep Time: 15 minutes
- Cook Time: 0 minutes
- Total Time: 15 minutes
- Yield: 4 1x
- Category: Salad
- Method: Raw
- Cuisine: American
Ingredients
For the strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing (makes 1 ¼ cups total)
- 1 ½ cups sliced strawberries
- 2 tablespoons maple syrup
- 2 tablespoons apple cider vinegar
- ¼ cup olive oil
- ¼ teaspoon kosher salt
For the strawberry spinach salad
- 1 cup sliced strawberries
- 1 handful thin sliced red onion
- 5 cups baby spinach leaves
- 3 cups mixed greens
- ¼ cup chopped pecans
- ¼ cup feta cheese crumbles (optional)
- ½ cup Strawberry Vinaigrette Salad Dressing
Instructions
- Make the strawberry salad dressing: In an immersion blender, small blender or standard blender, blend all ingredients until smooth. (An immersion blender and small blender are the quickest, but you can also use a standard blender: just blend for a few minutes until fully combined.)
- Prepare the salad ingredients: Slice off the tops of the strawberries, then slice them long-wise. Thinly slice the red onion (see the video for this method). If necessary, wash the spinach and mixed greens. Chop the pecans (if time, toast them to enhance the flavors).
- Serve: Place the greens on plates and top with all ingredients, then drizzle with the strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing (about 2 tablespoons per serving). Refrigerate the remaining dressing for up to 1 week.
Looking for more salad recipes?
Outside of this strawberry spinach salad recipe, here are a few of our favorite salads on A Couple Cooks:
- The BEST Kale Salad
- Incredible Chopped Salad
- Grilled Caesar Salad or Perfect Caesar Salad
- Greek Orzo Salad
- Black Bean Salad
- Roasted Eggplant Salad
- Wedge Salad with Potato Chips
- Watermelon Salad with Feta & Cucumber
- Radish Chopped Salad
- Easy Nicoise Salad
- Favorite Potato Salad
- Massaged Kale Salad with Pomegranate
- California Salad with Avocado Oil Vinaigrette
- Strawberry Salad with Balsamic Vinaigrette
- Cabbage Salad with Apples & Walnuts
- Southwest Salad
- Kale Caesar Salad
- Pea Salad with Lemon Dressing
- Healthy Potato Salad with Hard Boiled Egg
- Everyday Mediterranean Salad
- Beet and Apple Salad
- French Potato Salad
- German Cucumber Salad (Gurkensalat)
- Easy Salad Bar Ideas
- 10 Summer Salads You Need Now
Last updated: January 2020
So refreshing and great taste! I made this for my brothers and parents as an assignment for my Food Science Elective, and they loved it (I did too!) I will definitely make again!
Thank you for making it! So glad you enjoyed :)
These guys are consistently great. Love their website. Recipes always are hits with guests and certainly family!!!
Thank you so much Dolores! We really appreciate it!
Made this! Added lemon to the dressing, and used homemade candied walnuts instead of pecans!
This sounds yummy – going to make for the 4th! One question… if making the dressing in advance will it last for a few days in the fridge?
Yes! It would be best within 1 day, but you could stretch a few days. We recommend letting it come to room temp before serving.
It was delicious! Making for another party this week :-)
I just made this salad and I figured it would be good, but it was absolutely amazing!! The dressing is perfect. Thanks so much for this recipe, I’m going to make it over and over 🖤
So glad you loved it!
I
haven’t tried it yet but I am really excited
I made this tonight – the dressing is amazing! I almost didn’t do it because I didn’t have enough strawberries, but I just halved that part and it was totally worth it! Delicious!
Oh fantastic! SO so glad you enjoyed this one, it’s a personal fave :) Thanks for making it!