Strawberry Spinach Salad

Strawberry spinach salad is your crowd pleasing side dish all spring and summer long that will have everyone clamoring for more! This strawberry spinach salad is spring and summer in a bowl! It’s an irresistibly sweet, tangy, crunchy, creamy, fresh and vibrant explosion perfect for every occasion from Easter to Mother’s Day to today’s lunch or dinner. This spinach and strawberry salad is made with fresh baby spinach, sweet strawberries, juicy clementine oranges, creamy avocado, caramelized pecans, salty sunflower seeds, tangy feta & thinly sliced red onions all drizzled with sweet and tangy poppy seed dressing that will knock your socks off. Of course, you can customize this strawberry spinach salad just how you like, and I’ve included tons of recipe variations and substitutions to help. I’ve also included make ahead instructions (even assembling!) so this strawberry spinach salad can be the stress-free, hypnotic steal-the-show side dish of your dreams.

Although this easy spinach and strawberry salad is loaded with flavor, it’s also super simple to make, prep ahead friendly and versatile. I’ve included all sorts of ways you can customize the recipe to suit your mood and refrigerator such as swapping the oranges for pineapple, mangos or blueberries, adding asparagus, mushroom’s and/or bacon or making it a meal by adding lemon basil chicken or balsamic chicken Because you are going to want this strawberry spinach salad recipe all the ways. Now, let’s make some!

Ingredients:

STRAWBERRY SPINACH SALAD:

• 10 ounces fresh baby spinach or half spring mix
• 1 quart strawberries, hulled and halved or quartered if large
• 3 clementine oranges (like Cuties brand)
• 1/3 small red onion very thinly sliced
• 1 large avocado, sliced or chopped
• 3/4 English cucumber, sliced and quartered
• 3/4 cup crumbled feta cheese
• 1/2 cup roasted, salted sunflower seeds
• 1 recipe caramelized pecans (chopped after caramelizing)

POPPY SEED DRESSING

• 1/2 cup vegetable oil
• 1/3 cup granulated sugar
• 1/4 cup white vinegar
• 2 tablespoons orange juice (may sub 1 TBS vinegar)
• 1 1/2 tablespoons poppy seeds
• 1 teaspoon salt
• 1 teaspoon ground mustard
• 1 teaspoon dried minced onions
• 1/2 tsp each dried basil, pepper