This light healthy summer time salad has the freshness of the organic spinach and strawberries, flavoured with a maple syrup dressing and topped with feta cheese and walnuts. Such a perfect salad to accompany any grilled meat dish, fish or poultry, or just on it own makes a perfect lunch. When the different berries come in season, I will change it up as each offer a slight change in taste. When I saw my niece Joanna substitute sugar for a healthier version and in this case it’s maple syrup. I have to say it taste soooo much better! Thank you Joanna for sharing! xo
Helpful Tip:
- I highly recommend organic spinach. I don’t know if you are aware, but spinach is one of the Dirty Dozen foods that should be eaten organically if all possible. The leafy green vegetable tends to adhere to the pesticides and chemicals.
- Often times in my blog, you will notice I will recommend a good quality olive oil. Many of the high quality olive oil’s can be purchased in specialty shops that offer cold-pressed extra virgin olive oil from Italy, Greece, Spain, Chile, and even turkey. Having good quality olive oil can really made a difference in how your food will taste. If you haven’t purchased one of good quality, I encourage you to try it. I promise, you will see the differences in the taste and texture!
- Did you know that good quality olive oil has health benefits? This may surprise you, there are powerful antioxidants that help eliminate free radicals that enter our bodies; decreases inflammation such as arthritic pain; Omega 9 is helpful to low cholesterol and heart diseases, and improves are immune system.
Spinach Berry Salad
Ingredients
Salad:
- 4 cups organic spinach, washed and dried
- 1/4 red onion, thinly sliced
- 3/4 cup berries (sliced strawberries, raspberries, or blueberries) washed, dried
- 1/3 cup walnuts or pecans (option to glaze)
- 1/4 cup feta cheese, crumbled (optional)
Dressing:
- 3 tbsp pure maple syrup
- 2 tbsp organic apple cider vinegar
- 4 tbsp pure olive oil
- 1/2 tsp Dijon mustard
- salt
Instructions
- Wash and spin dry spinach. Slice red onion, wash and dry berries of your choice and break nuts in half. Option is to glaze nuts in maple syrup in a skillet for about 5 minutes, and set aside.
- In a small bowl, whisk together olive oil, apple cider vinegar, maple syrup, Dijon mustard and salt.
- Add half of the red onion, and berries to the spinach bowl, then add dressing over the spinach and toss coating the spinach. Add the remaining red onion, berries, feta cheese (optional) and nuts to the top of the salad to avoid these ingredients to get lost in the salad.
Nutrition
The array of colours adds to this salad and I don’t normally add red cabbage but I thought not only does it give it colour but a crunchy texture. The salad dressing is simple but delicious. It can be easily stored in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.
Top this spinach salad with crumbled feta, and walnuts. Sometimes, I nice option is goats feta cheese and whether you add walnuts or pecans, glazing is an option as well. If you want that extra sweetness to the salad then glazing would do the trick. Serve it up with grilled grilled poultry, fish or meats.
