I love making my favorite fresh strawberry salad to celebrate the changing seasons. It’s like spring on a plate! Baby spinach topped with sweet strawberries, sharp red onions, toasty nuts, creamy cheese, and a tangy-sweet dressing is the perfect side dish for lunch or dinner.
Better yet, this summer salad is a snap to throw together using only simple ingredients—more than half of which I’d consider pantry staples. In mere minutes, you can whip up a delicious and colorful salad that’s great alongside a main dish or top it with your favorite protein to turn it into a full meal. For more salad recipes, try my kale salad, broccoli salad, and avocado salad next!
Ingredients
These are the main ingredients you’ll need to make this strawberry salad. Find the full list with measurements in the recipe card!
Nuts — feel free to use your favorites here. I like to use chopped toasted pecans, sliced or slivered almonds, or toasted walnut pieces, though pistachios would also be great.
Greens — baby spinach or a mix with arugula is my preferred choice, but any tender greens will do.
Fresh strawberries — “fresh” is the operative word here. While frozen berries can usually be swapped in for fresh in baked or cooked dishes, they turn too mushy after they defrost to be a good choice for making this strawberry spinach salad.
Crumbled feta or goat cheese — goat cheese has a softer texture and a tangier flavor, while creamy feta cheese has a squeaky consistency and a saltier, brinier flavor profile. Both are excellent, so use your favorite!
Balsamic vinegar and lemon juice — using both types of acid ensures a balance of sweetness and tart brightness in the salad dressing. Be sure to use high-quality balsamic and fresh lemon juice for the best results.
Dijon mustard — this lends a subtle, spicy flavor to our salad dressing while working simultaneously as an emulsifier (meaning it holds the acids in even suspension with the olive oil). In a pinch, swap in an equal amount of another type of mustard (e.g., spicy brown, honey mustard) or use ⅓ as much dried mustard powder.
Strawberry Salad Recipe
Equipment
- Large salad bowl
- Medium bowl or small mason jar
- Small Sheet pan
Ingredients
For the Salad:
- ½ cup pecans, almonds or walnuts (50g)
- 5 ounces mixed greens such as baby spinach or arugula (XX cups)
- ¼ cup sliced red onion (30g)
- 1 cup sliced, fresh strawberries (150g)
- ½ cup crumbled feta or goat cheese (55g)
For the Dressing:
- 3 tablespoons balsamic vinegar
- 1 tablespoon lemon juice
- ½ teaspoon dijon mustard
- ½ teaspoon salt
- ¼ teaspoon black pepper
- ¼ cup extra virgin olive oil (60ml)
Instructions
For the Salad:
- Preheat the oven to 350°F. Place the nuts on a small sheet tray. Bake for 8 to 10 minutes or until toasted and fragrant. Set aside to cool.
- In a large serving bowl, combine the greens, red onion, strawberries, and cheese.
For the Balsamic Dressing:
- In a medium bowl, whisk to combine the balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and black pepper. While whisking, slowly drizzle in the olive oil, starting with a few drops at a time, ending with a slow stream, until a smooth vinaigrette forms. (Alternatively, you can add all of the ingredients to a mason jar and shake to combine).
To Assemble:
- Just before serving, top the salad with the toasted nuts and drizzle with the dressing to taste. Season with more salt and pepper to taste. Toss gently to combine, if you like.
Notes
- Use real balsamic vinegar for the best flavor—there are lots of imitators out there. Some signs to look for are certifications like DOP (Denominazione di Origine Protetta) meaning it was made in specific regions of Italy, or PGI (Protected Geographical Indication), which is less strict than DOP, but still a sign of quality. Good balsamic should be thicker and syrupy; when you tilt the bottle, it should flow slowly and leave streaks or “legs” on the glass.
- If you prep your strawberries ahead of time, you’ll need to keep them in the fridge. Before serving, give them about 10-15 minutes at room temperature to take the chill off so their flavor will be more potent.
- After step 2, when the salad ingredients are assembled, you can cover the salad and refrigerate it for up to 8 hours. Make the dressing and chill it separately in a glass jar, then shake it up, and drizzle it over the salad when you are ready to serve.
Nutrition
How To Make Strawberry Salad
1. Spread the nuts evenly on a small baking tray and bake at 350°F until they are golden and aromatic. Remove from the oven and let them cool.
2. Toss together the greens, red onion, strawberries, and cheese in a large bowl.
3. In a separate medium bowl, whisk together the dressing ingredients without the oil (balsamic vinegar, lemon juice, mustard, salt, and black pepper) until well combined.
4. Continue whisking and begin to slowly add the olive oil until the dressing is well-emulsified.
5. Sprinkle the cooled, toasted nuts over the salad just before you are ready to serve.
6. Drizzle the vinaigrette over the salad and toss gently to mix everything together.
Choose Your Favorite Greens
The great thing about salads is you have a lot of flexibility with the ingredients you use. You’re welcome to use spring mix, baby spinach, arugula, or more delicate red or green leaf lettuce. I personally like to use a mix of baby spinach and arugula for the best combination of flavor and texture. The heartier spinach leaves hold up to the dressing well, and the spicy bite of arugula is a delicious contrast of flavor to the sweet strawberries.
Soak Fresh Red Onions In Ice Water
If you prefer a less pungent onion flavor, soak the sliced onions in cold water for 10 to 20 minutes to leech out some of the sulfurous compounds that give onions their bite. Drain them well and pat them dry before adding them to the salad. You can also swap them for pickled red onions!
Salad Topping Ideas And Variations
- Candied pecans or candied walnuts will give this salad even more sweetness and crunch if used instead of plain toasted nuts.
- Can’t do nuts? Try using crunchy sunflower seeds or pepitas instead.
- Feel free to add more ingredients to the mix to bulk up your salad—creamy avocado, sliced sweet peppers, thinly sliced cucumbers, or shaved carrots are always welcome.
- For a shortcut, you can use store-bought salad dressing like balsamic vinaigrette or creamy poppyseed dressing.
- I love to make this salad in the fall and winter, but I use sweet chunks of roasted butternut squash in place of the strawberries!
What To Serve With Strawberry Salad
I love making this colorful strawberry spinach salad as a side dish for simple proteins—it pairs well with both air fryer salmon and roasted chicken or as an accompaniment to a scoop of chicken salad. Alternatively, you can use cubes of air fryer tofu to act as an added protein that also kind of feels like croutons!
If you’re hosting a dinner party, try serving this salad as your appetizer course, followed by something rich and creamy like my spinach-stuffed chicken breasts.
Make Ahead Tips
To get a jump on meal prep, feel free to make the salad dressing and toasted nuts up to a week in advance, storing the dressing in an airtight container in the fridge and the nuts in an airtight container at room temperature. You can also prep and slice your other ingredients a day ahead.
Up to an hour before serving, assemble the salad without the nuts or dressing—you don’t want to add either until right before serving.
You can also make this into a mason jar salad for a splendid grab-n-go lunch! Pour the dressing in first, then follow with the onions, strawberries, and cheese crumbles, and finish with the greens on top. Keep the nuts separate in another container to prevent them from getting soggy. Just shake it up when you’re ready to eat!
Pro Tips For Making This Recipe
- Use fresh, in-season strawberries. They should have an easy-to-detect aroma if you give the clamshell a sniff. If they don’t smell like anything, they likely won’t taste like much, either.
- Try making your salad dressing in a mason jar. You can shake it to emulsify it rather than needing to whisk it! As a bonus, letting the dressing sit in the fridge for a day will help the flavors meld.
- If you choose to use goat cheese, freeze the log! You can then grate the frozen log over the salad. Crumbling fresh goat cheese can be messy, but this easy trick gets smaller pieces of goat cheese throughout the salad without most of it sticking to your hands.
Frequently Asked Questions
If at all possible, try to only dress as much salad as you’ll be able to eat—once tender greens like spinach are dressed, they will begin to wilt. That said, if you have any pre-dressed salad, you can pop the leftovers in an airtight container and refrigerate them for up to 1 day.
As much as I love this balsamic vinaigrette, you don’t have to feel limited. A lemon vinaigrette, sweet poppy seed dressing, or the dijon vinaigrette from my Niçoise salad recipe would all be excellent choices!
Absolutely! White balsamic vinegar is a nice change of pace and has a natural sweetness. Alternatively, use light options like white wine vinegar or champagne vinegar, or try red wine vinegar or sherry vinegar instead. Note that vinegars have varying levels of acidity, so you may need to balance them out with a drizzle of honey.
If you’ve tried this Strawberry Salad recipe, then don’t forget to rate it and let me know how you got on in the comments below. I love hearing from you!
