I love days like today when the weather in Seattle is perfectly perfect. Warm temperatures, blue skies, and not a care in the world except for the dilemma of what to eat for dinner. I decided to make a spinach strawberry salad as the main dish. I’ve had a love affair with this salad ever since I had at bridal shower 15 years ago. The combination of sweet and tangy poppy seed dressing on torn spinach is the perfect dish to serve as a light and refreshing meal in itself or for potlucks, showers, and entertaining. This salad always disappears first and is one of my most requested recipes by those who try it.
It’s not only a beautiful salad with poppy seeds and strawberries but a healthy one. Spinach is an awesome source of vitamin C as well as a powerful antioxidant and considered a “Super Food”. Strawberries are also a great source of vitamin C, K, B5, B6, folic acid, potassium, omega -3 fatty acids, and many more.
Everything you need to make this salad is already likely in your refrigerator and cupboards. Make sure you prepare the poppy seed dressing before starting to give it time to settle and come together. And for parents out there whose kids hate salad, this may be the salad that wins them over. Enjoy!
Strawberries and Spinach Salad Recipe:
Ingredients:
1/2 cup of distilled white vinegar
2/3 cup of olive oil (vegetable oil can be substituted)
1/2 cup white sugar or Splenda equivalent for Low-Carb Diets
2 tbs. of poppy seeds
1/2 tsp. of paprika
2 tbs. of minced onion
2 tbs. of roasted and toasted sesame seeds
2 bunches of spinach, washed, dried, and torn in pieced
2-3 cups of strawberries, sliced with stems removed
OPTIONAL: 1/2 cup of slivered almonds, crunchy chow mein noodles, or minced bacon pieces.
Using an immersion hand blender, blender or a whisk, combine vinegar, oil, sugar, poppy seeds, paprika, and onion until sugar is dissolved. Place dressing in the refrigerator. To toast sesame seeds, place the seeds in an un-oiled small skillet on medium heat. Stir every 30 seconds until seeds start browning and popping. Remove from heat and set aside.
Slice washed and stemmed strawberries and place in a small bowl. Chill in the refrigerator.
In a large bowl toss torn spinach leaves, strawberries, sesame seeds, and poppy seed dressing. Serve immediately. Enjoy!
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Looks wonderfully healthy! Strawberry and spinach, yum. Pretty good combination to me. Plus I love both ingredients. Will be saving this recipe. =)
That does look healthy and refreshing! What a wonderful start to a low carb summer meal.
Great blog!
This salad looks beautiful and bright – perfect for summer! I will give it a try – it might just be one that my husband will eat willingly!
That looks so wonderful and refreshing.
I didn’t start eating fruits in my salads until about 5 years ago. Strawberry and spinach salad was actually the first one that said to me a salad doesn’t have to be just lettuce, grilled chicken, and cucumber slices.
This looks fantastic. Makes me wish I had picked up a carton of strawberries from the market after all.
Thanks for all the comments everyone. I love this salad because I usually have spinach and strawberries on hand. I also make big batch of the dressing so I can just make this this really quickly and go.
Pocky: I hadn’t thought about it in those terms but you’re right.. I guess there are not many salads with just fruit. And fruit salad does not count.
A wonderful summer salad! I love the addition of toasted sesame seeds here!
This looks fabulous and a nice change from the typical, overly sweet balsamic version of a strawberry spinach salad. Looking forward to trying this one!
Could you please specify how much sugar? It only reads 1/2. Is that 1/2 cup?
Hi Disparate: I went ahead and corrected the recipe. It is 1/2 cup of sugar.
Whoa! It looks delicious!
http://descartinhernando.webs.com
Mandarin Oranges make this even better… in my opinion anyway
YUM!!! I’m glad you reposted this recipe. I am going to make this soon! My wedding anniversary was Dec 29th, and we went to our favorite local place for dinner, and I had an AMAZING spinach salad that had poppyseed dressing and strawberries!!! I was thinking I should try to recreate it because I loved it so much, but didn’t have a poppyseed dressing recipe. They also added walnuts, and feta cheese (gave it a nice tang) to the salad at the restaurant.
thanks for all your great recipes, and beautiful photos!
I made this salad last night and it was awesome. Thank you for your website and sharing your recipes.
Teri