The Strawberry Spinach Salad is perfect for summer dining. Sweet strawberries, onions, cucumber, and toasted nuts are tossed in a bright lemon poppyseed dressing. Serve as individual salads or toss everything together in a large bowl for family style dining or events. Add grilled chicken to make it a meal!
Ingredients Needed
This is just a preview of ingredients and method, keep scrolling for full printable recipe.
Salad
- Bagged baby spinach
- Red onion
- Cucumber
- Sliced, toasted almonds – Just heat them in a small skillet over medium heat, stirring frequently, until they’re golden and fragrant.
- Grilled chicken breasts – Optional, but makes it a great one-dish meal!
Dressing
- Lemons
- Rice wine vinegar
- Canola oil – Or other neutral flavored oil.
- Kosher salt
- Black pepper
- Granulated sugar
- Poppy seeds
- Grated onion
- Fresh garlic
How to Make a Strawberry Spinach Salad
- Start by mixing up your dressing. Zest a lemon and grate a little onion into a small jar. To those, add fresh lemon juice, rice wine vinegar, oil, sugar, salt and pepper, and poppy seeds. Give it a good shake and set it aside.
- You can assemble one big salad or individual servings. Layer spinach, cucumbers, red onion, and strawberries. Sprinkle with toasted almonds and drizzle with dressing as desired
Storing and Other Tips
- Assembled salads are best eaten fresh! If you have leftovers or want to plan ahead, store salad components in the refrigerator (except nuts) and build your salads as needed.
- Store your finished dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- If you’re serving a crowd, feel free to dress and toss one large salad immediately before serving. Save a few slices of your veggies and a sprinkle of nuts for garnish.
Frequently Asked Questions
Where’s the cheese? Can I add some?
Of course! Feta would be great here. A nice blue cheese would probably be delicious as well.
Can I use a different kind of nut in place of almonds?
Yes. Any toasted nut would be good here. Quick Candied Nuts would be great, too.
Can I make this ahead of time?
You can certainly make the dressing a day ahead of time. You can also toast your nuts. While it’s probably best to prep and slice your produce right before assembly, you could do it several hours ahead of time if needed.
Strawberry Spinach Salad
This bright summer salad combines sweet strawberries and a bright lemon poppyseed vinaigrette. Perfect as a side salad or as a one-dish meal with added grilled chicken.
Servings side salads
Ingredients
Dressing
- 1 teaspoon lemon zest
- ⅓ cup freshly squeezed lemon juice 2-3 large lemons
- ¼ cup rice wine vinegar
- ¼ cup canola oil
- ¾ teaspoon kosher salt
- ¼ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
- ¼ cup granulated sugar
- 2 teaspoons poppy seeds
- 1 teaspoon grated onion
- 1 clove garlic
Salad
- 1 10- ounce bag fresh baby spinach
- ½-1 small red onion thinly sliced
- 1 medium cucumber seeded and sliced (you can peel it first if you want)
- 1 pint strawberries sliced
- 1 cup sliced almonds toasted
- 1 recipe Lemon Poppy Seed Vinaigrette
- ½ pound grilled chicken breasts sliced or diced (optional)
Instructions
Dressing
- Using a micro plane or other fine grater, grate 1 teaspoon lemon rind off the lemons. Grate 1 teaspoon onion. Place in a small container with a lid. Add the remaining ingredients and shake vigorously. If possible, refrigerate at least an hour before serving. Shake well before serving.
Salad
- Toss ingredients together and serve immediately. You can also arrange the ingredients on individual plates for serving.
- Dress as desired.
Notes
- Nutrition information was calculated without Lemon Poppyseed Dressing or chicken.
- Assembled salads are best eaten fresh! If you have leftovers or want to plan ahead, store salad components in the refrigerator (except nuts) and build your salads as needed.
- Store your finished dressing in an airtight container in the refrigerator and enjoy within 3-4 days for best results.
- If you’re serving a crowd, feel free to dress and toss one large salad immediately before serving. Save a few slices of your veggies and a sprinkle of nuts for garnish.
Nutrition
Calories: 203kcal, Carbohydrates: 20g, Protein: 8g, Fat: 12g, Saturated Fat: 1g, Polyunsaturated Fat: 3g, Monounsaturated Fat: 7g, Trans Fat: 0.01g, Sodium: 65mg, Potassium: 907mg, Fiber: 8g, Sugar: 9g, Vitamin A: 7379IU, Vitamin C: 95mg, Calcium: 172mg, Iron: 4mg
Calories: 203kcal
Cost: $8
Did You Make This Recipe?Snap a picture, and hashtag it #ourbestbites. We love to see your creations on our Instagram @ourbestbites!
Questions & Reviews
Isn’t Portlandia hilarious?!
I’m from Portland!!! I love that you put that video on your post! A little piece of our wierd little city. Great recipe, strawberries my fav!
This looks wonderful! And such a break from the norm when it comes to salads! <3 it!
Oh my gosh this is soooo like a salad they make at the MTC when they train the mission presidents and have the General Authorities down. It’s soooo good! Now I’m craving it. Yum! 🙂
Hey I know exactly what you are talking about Adrienne. I worked there too. When did you work there?
I made this tonight for dinner and it’s as delicious as it looks, maybe even more so … it has that wonderful fresh taste of the *Promise of Spring*. The dressing really polishes it off.
Thank You so much, love it! Also made the spinach chicken stromboli from your cookbook today too … also super-great, the flavors layer up so tasty and simple.
This salad looks delicious! And that clip was too funny!
We have been eating this same salad with a variety of dressings for about a decade or so and we just love it. It is a staple now and our kids ask for it frequently. I am the same way about the strawberries at Costco, too – it seems a shame NOT to buy them!
I had this for dinner tonight and it was REALLY good! The husband loved it too =)
I LOVE to add some shredded swiss cheese and mushrooms. I like dried cranberries too…the more sweet the better 😉 I sometimes go as far as sugar coating my almonds too! delish! thanks for sharing! I need to go get the ingredients and make this, soon…very, very soon!
Oh man that looks yummy- love it.
What a coincidence! I was just finishing up my last bit of spinach-strawberry-red onion-cucumber-honey poppyseed salad when I clicked on your blog for this post! I put feta cheese on mine – nice contrast with the sweet strawberries and honey poppyseed dressing. Also, I didn’t have chicken, so I tossed on some chopped steak. That’s why I love this salad; it’s so versatile!
Thank you for posting this yummy looking recipe. I will run to the store today to get the ingredients. I linked it to my blog.
Thanks,
JoAnn
I was so sad when BYU lost last night!!! I thought of you guys!!!
Portlandia… Very funny!
Love that video too. Hilarious! And thanks for a written-down version of this salad. It never comes out for me the same way every time, but one of my favorites! And good reminder about the strawberries at Costco. I’ll have to go get some for Peter’s birthday.
Salad looks wonderful. The video is priceless, had to watch their other antics and forwarded to all my Oregon friends.
Sounds yummy – I just bought some of the strawberries you mentioned last weekend and they are almost gone! Just enough left for my yogurt parfait at lunch. I’ll just have to buy some more this weekend 🙂
Oh and I know this is probably a bazaar question, but do you know what the font names are of the fonts you used for your site? I love ’em.
Melissa- YAY for commenting! I’m so proud of you 🙂
We love the fonts too.
The block one is League Gothic:
http://www.theleagueofmoveabletype.com/fonts/7-league-gothic
And I actually can’t think of the names of the other 2 right now!
Ok. Seriously? That Hulu video??? Made my day. And I love this salad. My husband is obsessed with spinach salads lately (weird I know) so I’m sure I’ll be making this soon!! Thank again guys!
p.s Oh and this is the girl from the bountiful book signing who came in with her mom and baby who “never” comments. I commented finally! I’ll try and make it a normal thing now.:)
This looks like the most perfect salad in the world!
Yum! Can’t wait to try this! Just sounds like an amazing combinations of flavors! Picking up the ingredients today.
I have had a salad similar to this but added crumbled gorgonzola cheese. Kicks it up a few more notches. YUMMO!!
This looks delicious. I’m always looking for salads that are different from the norm of iceburg and ranch (not there’s anything wrong with that sort of salad, of course!).
Great salad…way too much chicken info…I will now start naming all the chicken I cook:)
Yum, looks delicious! I always have to buy those strawberries at Costco and they are so tasty!!!
Love this salad and can never make it just right. I’m definitely doing it your way next time! Thanks!
Looks really fresh and yummy! I often get into a salad rut so thank you!
Love fruit in my spinach salads! Yum!
Perfect timing…..I have just began to enjoy the benifits and taste of spinach. The recipe looks yummy!
Sounds super yummy! I have been enjoying strawberries in my salads lately and its a very welcome change 🙂