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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?
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!