Fruit and Spinach Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette
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This Fruit and Spinach Salad is easy, light and delicious. My sister Alla made it for my sister Anna’s baby shower and I knew I had to recreate it! I’ve created a tasty mild strawberry vinaigrette to go with it. This salad is loved by every palate; young and old.
If you like a stronger vinaigrette, feel free to add more red wine vinegar. I’ve also tested this with cider vinegar and it worked well; although I liked the red wine vinegar a teensy bit more.
Fruit and Spinach Salad Ingredients:
1 apple, sliced
1 pear, sliced
1/2 lb strawberries, sliced
2 Tbsp pumpkin Seeds
8 oz (1/2 lb) Spinach Leaves
Strawberry Poppyseed Vinaigrette Ingredients:
(makes enough vinaigrette for 2 salads)
1/4 cup cold filtered water
1/4 cup olive oil
1/4 cup red wine vinegar, or to taste
1/2 lb fresh strawberries, hulled and halved (about 1 1/2 cups)
2 Tbsp honey
1/2 tsp poppy seeds
How to Make Fruit and Spinach Salad Dressing:
1. In a food processor or blender, combine 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup red wine vinegar, 1/2 lb strawberries and 2 Tbsp honey and puree until smooth.
2. Add 1/2 tsp poppy seeds and pulse once to combine. Refrigerate dressing up to a week.
Assembling the Salad:
1. Place all of your salad ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add salad dressing to taste and toss to combine. Easy!
Fruit and Spinach Salad with Strawberry Vinaigrette
Ingredients
Salad Ingredients:
- 1 apple, cored and sliced
- 1 pear, cored and sliced
- 1/2 lb strawberries, hulled and sliced
- 2 Tbsp pumpkin seeds
- 8 oz 1/2 lb Spinach Leaves
Instructions
How to Make the Dressing:
- In a food processor or blender, combine 1/4 cup water, 1/4 cup olive oil, 1/4 cup cider vinegar, 1/2 lb strawberries and 2 Tbsp honey and puree until smooth.
- Add 1/2 tsp poppy seeds and pulse once to combine. Refrigerate dressing up to a week.
Assembling the Salad:
- Place all of your salad ingredients in a large mixing bowl. Add salad dressing to taste and toss to combine. Easy!
Want a bite? What’s your favorite salad?
Natasha Kravchuk
Hi! I'm Natasha Kravchuk. Here you'll find delicious, trusted recipes with easy step-by-step photos and videos. 
Loved the dressing! Especially loved the suggestion of half balsamic (ours is 30 years old). Since we aren’t pear fans, we added the most gorgeous plump blueberries, some cucumber and some candied pecans. Love your recipes!
That sounds so good, Cynthia! Thank you for sharing and I’m happy to hear you enjoy my recipes.
Wonderfully fresh salad, thank you! Would it be possible to get the nutrition information for this salad?
I’m so glad you enjoyed this salad, Karen! We are slowly working through all of our recipes to add nutrition info but it is a time-consuming process as they have to be added one at a time. Thank you for being patient! 🙂
Thank you! This was a perfect salad with my family dinner last night. I even had some for breakfast this morning.
I’m so glad you enjoyed this Sarah! Thank you for sharing that great review with me!
Do you know how long the dressing would last in the fridge?
I would say at least a week or so for the dressing. We haven’t kept ours around much longer than that.
I’ve kept the dressing for a lot longer in the fridge, probably more than a month. I didn’t know how the fresh berries would affect the keeping ability, but it’s just fine! It has plenty of vinegar to keep it from spoiling. I never seem to have the poppy seeds, so I’ve never tried it with them. This salad is so easy and such a favorite that I served it at my daughter’s wedding celebration.
I love it. Thank you
You’re welcome Juan! I’m so happy you enjoyed it!
I love the way your website is set up. The actual recipe is toward the top, so I don’t have to scroll down through photos and directions that are trying to load in order to see if the recipe calls for ingredients I have on hand. I enjoy photos and need the directions, but I want to see the recipe first. I did a search for “fruit vinaigrette” and yours was by far the fastest to load and easiest to follow. Thank you and I commend you! Now I must go and start making this dressing, which, by the way, looks scrumptious!
Thank you so much for that awesome feedback! It really means alot to us :). We put a great deal of thought into the layout when we redesigned, trying to make it user friendly and we read hundreds of answers to surveys we put out, so I’m just immensely happy to hear your feedback. Thank you!
I just made the strawberry pear apple spinach salad, didn’t pour the strawberry vinaigrette salad dressing to it I just put it in the refrigerator and until it’s time for my party will that be okay
Hi Carolyn, yes, that was a good call. I would add the dressing just before serving to keep all of the ingredients as fresh and crisp as possible 🙂
I was really sceptical but just tried it and it is so good! Definitely making the salad again! 🙂
I’m so happy you loved it! Thank you for the wonderful review 🙂
I did this salad several times and now this is my favorite. I like you are very creative. I enjoy every recipe you post. Thank you.
You are very welcome, I’m glad you enjoyed it :).
I have some frozen black raspberries i plan to use instead of strawberry. Think it will work?
Do you mean for the salad or the dressing? It might work for the dressing but it won’t taste the same. I haven’t tested it myself so let me know how you like it 🙂
made this tonight and it was fantastic!!!!
Awesome!! Thanks Joanna 🙂
Loved this! The dressing was FAB! Thanks!
You are welcome Ashley, I’m glad you enjoyed it 🙂
Can I omit the poppy seeds? or is there another substitution? thanks
You can omit the poppy seeds. It won’t affect the flavor at all 🙂
This recipe looks amazing! I was just wondering, do I have to add the red wine vinegar? Is there any other alternative?
I haven’t really tried with anything else for the dressing. The next closest thing would be regular white vinegar, but be careful with that since it is a little more potent so add it to taste.
Can I put Roasted & salted pumpkin seeds instead plain ones?
Yes, that will still be fine. The little bit of salt on the pumpkin seeds will still taste fine.
This was so delish! I will never buy another fruit vinegret again. I switched out the red wine vinegar for 1/2 balsamic… And 1/2 braggs vinegar (which were always trying to incorporate more in our diet).
Thanks for posting this.
Thank you for the great review Sarah and you are welcome :).
Loved this salad! Thanks for sharing this recipe 🙂
You’re so welcome 🙂 I’m so happy you loved it 🙂
i’ve made this recipe twice this summer as a main dish. i don’t eat meat but i bought a rotisserie chicken and threw that on top for my husband. also, we added feta and red onion because otherwise the salad seemed too sweet. great, fresh, healthy dinner. the dressing is to die for! thanks for sharing!
You are welcome Elizabeth, your comment is music to my ears :). Thank you for taking the time to write your feedback.
Thanks. We tried the dressing today, just added some poppy seeds. Very tasty!
P.S. One of your descriptions (between photos) still says cider vinegar. 🙂
Oh dear, thank you so much Alison! 🙂 Fixed 🙂
I’m so glad you enjoyed it 🙂
I feel like a big ol’ goober for asking this but are “apple red wine vinegar” and “cider vinegar” the same thing? Your photos are beautiful, and I want to swim in a vat of that dressing!
Oops. Disregard. I am a RN and I finished my second semester of grad school yesterday… I need a nap. Haha
I think I’m the one that needs to take a nap; lol. Thanks again Heather! 🙂
You’re absolutely right! The first time I made the dressing I used apple cider vinegar and then I made it using red wine vinegar which I liked better. When I went to update the recipe, I forgot to take out the word apple in the ingredient list. Thank you so much for asking and catching my oops.
I LOVE this! Such a beautiful salad, full of summer flavors! Pinned!
Anna (I have a sister named Anna!) Thank you so much for pinning the salad. I actually saw your pin this afternoon while perusing Pinterest. Thank you awesome lady! 😉
This salad is like dessert (except obviously much much healthier). Definitely brightened up my rainy day yesterday!
I thought so too. It’s such a treat and you feel good about it after wolfing down a big bowl. I’m so happy it brightened up your day yesterday. 🙂
That strawberry vinaigrette is going to haunt me until I can get to the store to buy strawberries! Must. Make. Immediately.
I love your salads – they are always so bright and fresh and bursting with color!
Thanks Lindsey! It is very tasty. I could almost eat it with a spoon (it’s much better on salad) 😉
Oh this looks so delish Natasha! I’ m a huge salad fan so count me in on giving this recipe a try…or two…or three lol 🙂
Oh I think you’ll love it!! 🙂
I had a company over my house yesterday, and I maid this salad. Guys didn’t even want to touch the salad but girls eat the salad and were asking for seconds. Guys called this salad “Girls salad”. Thank you for the recipe!!!
lol. They don’t know what they’re missing! 😉 My husband devoured it too. I’m so glad you and your girls loved it!
This is definitely the PRETTIEST recipe I’ve seen in a while!! Mm1Mm, gotta try it!
Andi, thank you so much for the compliment 🙂
Tasty and filling salad! Such beautiful colors!
It’s definitely a feel good salad! 🙂
Just made it 🙂
It was soooooo good!
Thank you Natasha !
Yes!!!! Thanks for the awesome feedback! I’m so happy you enjoyed the salad 🙂
Hello Natasha. Where did you buy your dressing container? It’s beautiful.
Thank you! It’s from Fred Meyer 🙂
I got mine at Walmart. 🙂
I love the pumpkin seeds twist! Will have to try!
Thanks Katya! I hope you love the salad! 🙂
That looks like the perfect salad for a summer day!
It was a hit at the baby shower. It is a perfect summer salad. It’s so healthy, light, super flavorful and delicious 🙂
This is absolutely beautiful Natasha, we are going to do this recipe on Saturday for our dieting group, the strawberries are good for weight loss
http://recipetoloseweight.blogspot.com/2014/04/lose-weight-with-strawberries-how-one.html
That’s very cool! It is a very healthy and yummy salad. I hope you all love it!