Spinach Strawberry Salad With Walnuts And Feta Cheese is a gorgeous, classic American salad, very popular and delicious.
Spinach Strawberry Salad With Walnuts And Feta Cheese
I don’t know about you but I enjoy eating all kinds of greens and vegetables in a salad form. From arugula to Boston lettuce, from cucumber salad to tomato and peppers salad, I just love a good combination of fresh vegetables.
This salad can be served as an appetizer, but can also sit proudly next to grilled meats and your favorite side dish.
I would say that this recipe tastes the best when you use strawberries in season, but you might be lucky and find good strawberries out of season as well, so you can make this salad for Thanksgiving or even Christmas.
What kind of ingredients you need for this recipe:
- Fresh baby spinach
- Fresh strawberries
- Red onion
- Crumbled Feta(or goat cheese)
- Chopped walnuts
- Cardamom powder
- Extra virgin olive oil
- White/Red Vinegar or lemon juice
- Salt
- Fresh ground pepper
- Optional: Few slices of crunchy crisp bacon for texture
How To make this Spinach Strawberry Salad With Walnuts And Feta:
Step One– Roasting Walnuts
The process is very simple. You start with the walnuts. The walnuts need to be toasted together with the cardamom in a pan, on low heat, moving them constantly, just to develop the flavor. Here is a good guide on how to do it, if you never toasted nuts before.
Please keep an eye on them as they can burn really fast. When you are done with them, remove them from the heat and allow them to cool while you are making the salad.
Step two– Preparing the spinach
For this salad we will use baby spinach. If you get the baby spinach from the garden, more than sure this spinach will be full of sand and dirt, so you will need to wash and rinse it really well.
If the baby spinach comes from the grocery store in a bag, I would wash and rinse it as well, even if the label on the bag tells you that it was washed multiple times.
How many times you heard on the news about people getting sick from using vegetables bought from grocery store? Better to be safe than sorry.
If the leaves are too big, it is ok to gently cut them in bite size pieces, without crushing them too much. Baby spinach leaves are delicate.
Step three– Onions and strawberries
Slice thinly the red onion, or dice it (based on your preference).
Clean the strawberries, remove the stems and slice them thin.
Step four- Assemble the salad:
In a large bowl place the baby spinach, slices of onions and strawberries. Add the toasted walnuts, sprinkle crumbled Feta cheese or goat cheese over. Optional, add the crisp bacon.
Step five- Make the vinaigrette:
In a small jar put extra virgin olive oil, lemon juice (or the vinegar of your choice), salt and pepper. Cover the jar and shake well until emulsified.
Serve immediately.
Substitution list of ingredients:
- Walnuts– For whatever reason you do not want walnuts in your salad(allergies, not available or just hate them) you can use pecans, sliced almonds, cashews or even pine nuts. If you are allergic to nuts in general, just skip them entirely.
- Strawberries– while I think you should make this salad only when you have strawberries available, I do understand if you want to replace them. I think a good option would be raspberries or even blueberries. I would not recommend anything else besides that.
- Vinegar– could be any kind of vinegar you like. In my kitchen, I use mostly apple cider vinegar, but white, red vinegar or balsamic are all good options. I sometimes make this salad with lemon juice instead of vinegar, so as long as you add any of these items, your salad will be delicious.
- Cheese– I personally like Feta cheese, but goat cheese is delicate and flavorful and works well too. Try to buy good quality Feta cheese, as the one already crumbled sitting in the plastic container at the grocery store is not great. A good chunk of Feta that you crumble with your clean fingers is better than anything else. Just sayin’ 🙂
What kind of dishes work well with this salad?
- Meat– Anything would work, really, from steaks to chicken and pork, roasted, fried or grilled.
- Fish– Salmon or anything you like, from fried, baked, or grilled, the sky is the limit.
- Side dish– green beans, roasted potatoes, mashed potatoes, couscous etc.
Have fun making this easy delicious recipe and enjoy it with family and friends!
Spinach Strawberry Salad With Walnuts And Feta Cheese
Delicious Spinach Strawberry Salad With Walnuts And Feta Cheese to make for any ocassion.
Ingredients
- 8 oz/250 g baby spinach
- 5-6 medium strawberries
- 1 small red onion
- optional: 2-3 slices of crunchy crisp bacon
- 1/2 cup/50 g crumbled Feta(or goat cheese)
- 1/4 cup/50 g chopped walnuts
- 1/2 teaspoon of cardamom powder
- 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
- 2 tablespoons vinegar or lemon juice
- 1/4 teaspoon salt
- 1/8 teaspoon fresh ground pepper
Instructions
- In a small pan, place the chopped walnuts and the cardamom. On medium-low heat, toss the walnuts and cardamom for a minute until the walnuts start to brown and smell fragrant&toasted. Make sure the walnuts don't burn, so stir constantly to ensure even toasting. Remove and let cool.
- Meanwhile, clean the spinach and cut into suitable pieces without crushing.
- Slice thinly or dice(based on your preference) the red onion and add it to the spinach.
- Clean the strawberries, remove the stems and slice them thin. Add them to the spinach.
- Add the cooled chopped walnuts.
- Optional, add chopped crisp bacon.
- Sprinkle crumbled Feta cheese or goat cheese over.
- Make a vinaigrette with oil, vinegar(or lemon juice), salt and pepper and pour over the salad.
- Toss gently the ingredients in the bowl, so they get coated with the dressing. Taste and add more salt if necessary.
- Serve immediately.
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Nutrition Information:
Yield:
4Serving Size:
1Amount Per Serving:Calories: 281Total Fat: 23gSaturated Fat: 5gTrans Fat: 0gUnsaturated Fat: 17gCholesterol: 20mgSodium: 480mgCarbohydrates: 12gFiber: 3gSugar: 3gProtein: 9g
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