Spinach Strawberry Salad is a refreshing, flavorful, and colorful fruit salad with creamy feta cheese. Fresh baby spinach loaded with sweet strawberries, red onion and an easy homemade poppy seed salad dressing makes for the best summer salad.
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Easy Spinach Strawberry Salad For Summer
Summertime is salad time. There are so many easy salad recipes out there filled with fresh fruit and vegetables that are perfect for enjoying in warm weather. Today, we’re sharing this Spinach Strawberry Salad with you because it is so tasty and refreshing – it’s a must-make for the warm months ahead!
Subtly sweet baby spinach is mixed with juicy strawberry slices, zesty red onion, crunchy pecans, and tangy feta cheese. Drizzle your spinach salad with our favorite easy Homemade Poppy Seed Dressing and it’s ready! It may sound simple, but the flavors are bold, bright, and beautiful. You’ll be making this sweet strawberry spinach salad for quick lunches, barbecues, as a side salad, and more.
Why We Love This Strawberry and Spinach Salad Recipe
Where do we start? There are so many reasons to be obsessed with this spinach strawberry salad! Here are a few quick thoughts on the matter:
- 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.
What You’ll Need
We want to keep things simple, so there are only 6 ingredients to round up today! If you’re looking for exact amounts for each ingredient, scroll on down to the recipe card below.
- 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.
- 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 Spinach Strawberry Salad
Once everything is rinsed, chopped, and ready to go, putting this strawberry salad with spinach together is a breeze! This is all there is to it:
- Combine the Ingredients: In a large bowl add spinach, strawberries, onion, and half of the chopped pecans, then toss until everything is blended.
- Add Dressing: When serving, add salad dressing only to what you will be eating, and toss until all of that is well coated.
- Mix in the Feta and Chopped Pecans: Add the feta and remaining pecans to the top and serve immediately.
Tips for Success
As you can see, putting this salad together isn’t very difficult. That said, there are a couple of little tips and tricks that you can follow to make sure this salad turns out super tasty every time you make it!
- 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.
Recipe Variations
While we love this strawberry spinach salad as-is, there are a bunch of ways that you can switch things up! These are some possible variations that might be fun to try:
- 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 Goes With This Strawberry Salad?
You can enjoy this spinach strawberry salad as a light meal, or serve it on the side of another main course – it’s up to you! Here are a few serving suggestions:
- 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.
How to Store This Salad or Make It Ahead
This strawberry salad recipe is pretty easy to store, but there are a few things to keep in mind. It is best to store any leftover salad without dressing in an airtight container for about 3 days. The poppy seed dressing can be refrigerated in a separate airtight container for 1 to 2 weeks.
Similarly, if you want to make this salad ahead, go for it! Just combine the salad ingredients in one container, whip the dressing together in another, refrigerate both, and then mix them together just before you’re ready to serve.
More Easy Summer Salads
You can never have enough quick and easy summer salad recipes! Here are a few more that you might like to try:
- Cherry Tomato Caprese Salad
- Chickpea Salad
- Mexican Corn Salad
- Cucumber Tomato Salad
- Shaved Brussels Sprouts Salad with Bacon
- Arugula Salad with Fried Goat Cheese
- Best Broccoli Salad
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.
Notes
- 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.
