Strawberry spinach salad is a refreshing, flavorful, and colorful salad with creamy feta cheese. Fresh baby spinach is loaded with sweet strawberries, tangy red onion and an easy homemade poppy seed salad dressing makes for the best summer salad.
Why We Love This Strawberry Spinach Salad Recipe
Summertime is salad time… But if you live in Florida like we do, it’s always salad time! This is a go-to salad recipe for so many reasons. For starters, the juicy berries are such a treat and balance all of the other strong flavors and textures perfectly! If you’re also a fan of tossing berries into salads, be sure to check out our other favorite – arugula salad with fried goat cheese. Check out all the other reasons we can’t stop making this strawberry spinach salad:
- Tremendous Texture: Crunchy pecans combine with tender strawberries and creamy feta in each satisfying bite of this spinach salad.
- Fresh Ingredients: This summer salad is a great use of fresh fruits and vegetables that you might even have growing in your own garden!
- Quick and Simple: It takes 10 minutes to prepare this salad – you can throw it together at a moment’s notice!
- Easy Storage: Spinach is more forgiving than most greens, which makes storing this salad pretty easy. Spinach is sturdy, holds it shape, and stays fresh longer than other greens.
Keep things fresh with more salad recipes like roasted beet salad with goat cheese, wilted lettuce salad with hot bacon dressing, and cherry tomato caprese salad.
Key Ingredients
Below you will find helpful notes for key ingredients used to make this strawberry spinach salad recipe. Scroll down to the recipe card below for the full ingredient list and exact amounts!
- Baby Spinach: I prefer baby spinach to regular spinach for this recipe because it’s a little sweeter. Make sure you rinse and dry your spinach before starting!
- Strawberries: Juicy, ripe strawberries add texture and sweetness to the salad – for suggestions on other berries that you could use, see the variations section below!
- Red Onion: Red onion gives this salad some mild spice. Make sure the slices of onion are thin so that the flavor doesn’t overwhelm every bite.
- Pecans: I bought chopped pecans for ease, but you can always purchase whole pecan halves, toast them, and chop them. You could also use walnuts, almonds, or even pine nuts.
- Crumbled Feta: Feta cheese adds a little creaminess and tanginess to the salad. Blue cheese also works well.
- Salad Dressing: We like to use this homemade poppy seed dressing, but you can use whatever your favorite dressing is. Our easy maple balsamic dressing would work well, too!
How to Make a Strawberry Spinach Salad
Once everything is rinsed, chopped, and ready to go, putting this strawberry spinach salad recipe together is a breeze! Below is a quick recipe overview, but please scroll to the recipe card at the bottom of this post for full instructions.
- Combine the Ingredients: Add spinach, strawberries, onions, and half of the chopped pecans to a bowl. Give it a good toss!
- Add Dressing: Add salad dressing only to what you’ll be eating, and toss until all of that is well coated.
- Mix in the Feta and Chopped Pecans: Add the feta and remaining pecans on top.
Cook’s Tips & Variations
- Toast the Pecans: Toasting the pecans gives them an intense buttery flavor that’s perfect for this strawberry salad.
- Be Sparing With the Salad Dressing: When adding the salad dressing, a little goes a long way. Start out light on the dressing because you can always add more. Or, let everyone add their own when serving.
- Don’t Add the Dressing Until You’re Ready to Serve: If you’re not using the entire salad, take out what will be eaten and just add dressing to that
- Add Bacon/Protein: Crumble up some crispy bacon and toss it in this salad – it’ll taste great! Grilled chicken could be a nice add-in, too.
- Add Other Berries: If you don’t have strawberries, you can throw in blueberries, blackberries, raspberries, etc. Other fruit like pears and apples will work as well!
- Substitute With Other Nuts: Feel free to switch out the pecans for sliced almonds, walnuts or pine nuts. If you like a sweeter bite, you could also use candied nuts!
- Change Up the Cheese: If you aren’t a fan of goat cheese, any soft crumbled cheese will do! We also love goat cheese or gorgonzola in this spinach salad.
- Mix In Some Arugula: If you don’t want to use only spinach, try a 50/50 mixture of spinach and arugula.
What to Serve with Strawberry Spinach Salad
- Chicken: Grilled chicken breast pairs so well with this sweet salad – they make the perfect summer lunch or lighter dinner!
- Pork: These air fryer pork chops are another easy dinner that you could serve with a spinach salad.
- Quinoa: Adding quinoa to this salad makes it a little more filling! Other small pastas like orzo will work as well.
Storing
Storing: It’s best to store any leftover salad without dressing in an airtight container for up to 3 days in the fridge. The poppy seed dressing can be refrigerated in a separate airtight container for 1 to 2 weeks.
Best Spinach Strawberry Salad Recipe
Ingredients
- 10 oz baby spinach, rinsed and dry
- Strawberries, rinsed, hulled and cut into slices
- ½ small red onion, sliced thin
- 1 cup chopped pecans
- 4 oz crumbled feta
- Poppy Seed Dressing, or your favorite dressing
Instructions
- In a large bowl add spinach, strawberries, onion and ½ cup of chopped pecans toss until blended.
- Only add salad dressing when ready to serve and to what you are serving.
- When serving add salad dressing and toss until well coated.
- Add the feta and remaining pecans to the top and serve immediately.
